In a hospital environment medical equipment cables are in constant exposure to infectious bacteria, germs and viruses.
Health care professionals are continuously evaluating sterilization methods as new antimicrobial cleansers and solvents are brought to market. Many of these cleaning agents contain chemicals that can compromise the integrity of cables insulation and jackets.
A leading manufacturer of nurse call devices contacted us regarding a new product they were designing.
The Challenge: Implement a choice of products for evaluation and testing that would meet the following criteria —
- The cord would be molded, so appearance was critical
- Withstand exposure to wide variety of chemicals, disinfectants, anti-bacterial sanitizers.
- Match the color of the injection molded remote.
- Find a polymer that would bond to the pendant in the injection molding process.
Our solution involved teaming up with one of our valued partners, T&T Marketing for their expertise. We narrowed down our choices to two medical grade alloys, ran prototypes and forwarded to the end user who was able to expose the samples to the required solvents for evaluation and additional follow up testing.
The solution selected was a combination of medical grade polymers. For the insulation we selected a product manufactured by Axiall Corp. This flexible PVC contains bio-based, non-phthalate plasticizers derived from renewable sources and widely used for USP Class VI applications. For the jacket compound a TPV (Thermoplastic Vulcanizate) was recommended. Manufactured by Exxon Mobil under the Santoprene brand name, this product performs extremely well when exposed to chemicals and solvents and should perform exceptionally well when sanitizing formulas come in contact. From a natural grade we were able to reach out to a custom colorant house and perfectly color match the cord to the pendant.
