Assembly Of Medical Equipment: The Features That Fasteners Must Have

The assembly of all types of medical equipment is something that has to be taken very seriously. Whether you are manufacturing or simply repairing the said equipment, it would be wise to remember that simple things such as the choice of fasteners you use will affect the quality of the patient care in one way or the other. Simply choosing random fasteners will not work. You will need to invest in high quality fasteners such as titanium hex tap bolts and aluminum carriage bolts, depending on the application you have for them. Either way, you need to have a very clear idea of what is expected of fasteners that are to be used to assemble medical equipment. Some of the most important of these include:

Biological inertness

Most medical equipment will at some point in time come into contact with substances such as blood or human tissue. It is important that the equipment and its components including the fasteners don’t end up having a reaction with them. A good example of this is when you assemble lab equipment. If you use components that are likely to react with products such as blood, they might end up skewing the results, and this in turn means that patient care will be compromised. This is a very sensitive issue that has to be dealt with properly.

 

Adherence to standards

The fact that healthcare is very sensitive means that there are many regulations that are there to ensure that patients are cared for well. A large number of these have something to do with the quality of assembly of medical equipment. It’s critical that when you are in charge of assembling them, you should try and use fasteners that adhere to such codes. Failure to do so means that the equipment may not pass any quality control tests, which is bad for business as well as an inconvenience for all involved.

Resistance to chemical damage

In most hospitals, strong detergents and soaps are used to clean medical equipment. If you use fasteners that are not resistant to damage by such chemicals, it is likely that the equipment will not last very long. To this end, it’s usually important to do some research about some of the chemicals used in a hospital, and how they affect different metals. If you come across a scenario where the equipment will be exposed to all sorts of chemicals, you could opt to use titanium to clean them.

Ease of use

In a few of the cases, the fasteners will need to be undone and redone on a regular basis depending on the equipment being used. In such cases, you could opt for use of fasteners that allow you to do this with ease.
In summary, there are many different things that have to be considered when choosing fasteners for medical equipment. It’s important that you always make the right decision regarding the above, since a lot is at stake. If you are not sure about which fasteners to use, you can always consult your supplier for advice.