About Cable assembly medical devices, Medicine is one of the prevailing industries. Despite its popularity, it must ensure its equipment is reliable. Cable assemblies are important for medical applications. Thus, it would help if you chose professionals. Let’s have a deeper look at it.
Table of Contents
- Medical Cable Assemblies Understanding
- Types of Medical Cable Assemblies and Their Benefits
- Regulations & Requirements of Medical Cable Assemblies
- Applications of Medical Cable Assemblies
- Conclusion
Medical Cable Assemblies Understanding
Individual medical cables or groups of cables joined together with connectors at one, or both ends make up medical cable assemblies. Generally speaking, they use special materials and components for excellent performance.
Multiple parts combine to form a medical cable assembly, including
- Connectors: Connectors are a vital part of any system, as they provide a secure connection and allow for the exchange of information. They come in a wide variety of shapes and styles.
- Electromagnetic Shield: To prevent electric noise from tampering with a sent signal or to lessen RF signals from the cables, they use shielding material in cable assemblies. Moreover, the outer sleeve of a cable assembly is in electromagnetic shielding materials.
- Biomaterials: Biocompatible materials are safe for human use and won’t trigger an immune reaction. So, manufacturers must ensure polymers are used as much as possible in medical cable assemblies to keep patients from getting hurt. In addition, biomaterials are often used to make abrasion-resistant jackets for medical wire assemblies.
Assemblies of medical cables provide various advantages:
- Extremely flexible; won’t kink
- They are not damaged by heat and can survive autoclave temperatures up to 134 degrees Celsius.
- Resistance to chemicals
- Hydrophobic
- EMI protection
- Non-magnetic
Caption: Mechanical ventilation equipment
Types of Medical Cable Assemblies and Their Benefits
According to the interface, there are three main categories of medical cable assemblies.
Communication Interfaces
Any medical cable assembly application would be incomplete without a communication interface. Local area networks often employ either serial, fiber-optic, or modular cabling.
Interfaces between equipment and subassemblies
You have seen this assembly in nuclear imaging devices. Most manufacturers install it as original equipment; thus, when it wears out, you need to swap it for upgrades.
Patient interfaces
Usually, these cable assemblies need to be replaced for as long as the medical device is in use. However, they might deteriorate with age and overuse.
The subtypes of patient interface assemblies include
Limited-Use Interface: In limited-use interfaces, the cables are only meant to function for a certain amount of time before they break down from repeated usage or exposure to harsh chemicals used for cleaning. Cables in intensive care units and ECG diagnostic leads are only two examples of their many potential uses.
Long-life Patient Interface: These interfaces are utilized for electrocardiogram (ECG) diagnostic tests and ultrasound imaging; they are flexible, resilient, and highly wear-resistant
Use-Only interfaces are single-use kits that come disinfected and in a sealed package. Medical devices include catheters, fetus monitoring wires, and lead sets for neural simulators.
Caption: Modern equipment using medical cable assemblies
Regulations & Requirements of Medical Cable Assemblies
Also, medical cable assemblies have strict quality and performance requirements from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Reliability
Cable assemblies need certain parts for safe connections and unaltered signals in a medical or healthcare setting. When an emergency occurs, the system cannot malfunction. So, medical cable assemblies must have unique qualities to meet normative standards.
Chemical Resistance
Sterilization techniques can be harsh, but recyclable assemblies still need to perform at a high level. Some machinery or gadgets are too pricey to use just once.
Durability
The clinical environment is rough on portable devices and their connections. While on their rounds, employees have to wind and unwind them. Moreover, they use wheelchairs and gurneys to walk on and roll over the casualties. They clean the instruments every time, even when they have to move quickly between patients because they are so busy. Moreover, the safety of the patients and the product’s success depend on how well each electrical connection works.
One-Time-Use Cases
A one-use cable assembly could be the case. But even if you use them only once, disposable cable assemblies still need to be highly useful, durable, and compatible. Patient well-being and safety must always come first when designing a medical gadget.
Resistant to Interference
Manufacturers use Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) rules to make cable assemblies in medical settings. It’s also crucial that the assembly’s mating processes are simple and secure enough so that you can handle them while wearing medical gloves and that the application doesn’t cause any electronic noise.
Bio-Safe
Biocompatibility and interoperability with biochemical uses are essential in a medical setting, so you must design the medical cable assemblies accordingly. Every healthcare facility contains potentially infectious materials. Cable assemblies must work well and resist agents and fluids at the point of contact and meet strict regulatory standards.
Caption: Advanced operating mechanism in action
Applications of Medical Cable Assemblies
As a medical cable assemblies supplier, we have many custom cable assemblies. We may offer cable assemblies complete with a connector, sensor, light guide, and other components. Noninvasive diagnostic and treatment methods we will help improve include catheters, endoscopes, medical ultrasound testing devices, and other electrosurgical procedures.
Surgical
We use Liquid Injection Molding (LIM) to create silicone over-molded and shielded cable assemblies. So, you can use autoclaves, Steris®, and Sterrad® to sterilize them more than once. To ensure that equipment will last a long time, we use our low-pressure molding to make a seal between components that keeps water out as much as possible.
High-volume disposable surgical wire assemblies are another product line for Cloom. Also, we offer our OEM partners disposable surgical cables at prices that are comparable to the market by combining single-use connections with efficient cable designs.
Patient Monitoring
At Cloom, we make cables for other companies for ECG, IBP, and other monitoring devices. These cable assembly cables include
- Single and multi-channel IBP cables
- Monitor-end connectors with color-coding and keying for reduced errors.
- Spo2 extension wires to customer specifications
- ECG cable assemblies with 2 to 12 wiring leads
Our patient monitoring assemblies also have important parts like RFID tags, resistors, coils, and other components.
Cable assembly medical devices: Patient-Worn Electronics
The diagnostic process is now available outside of a clinical or hospital setting. Cloom makes Holter, ECG, and event monitoring leads durable, flexible, and fit with the industry trend toward integrated solutions. These leads are used for portable monitoring.
Patient-worn electronics must be reliable and made from the highest-quality materials and components. Additionally, you have to ensure there is no single point of failure between the patients and the monitoring device.
Cable assembly medical devices: Electrophysiology
Cloom focuses on customer specifications in producing custom Electrophysiology (EP) cables. Connecting to the interface panel, cables can have DIN 42802-2 connectors, while the other end of the cable can be adapted to fit a catheter per the customer’s preferences. Along with these cables, we also make adapter cables and cables that connect the different parts.
Emergency Medical Services
First responders are frequently tasked with a life-or-death mission during an emergency. Moreover, sensors and defibrillators need cables that can withstand the weather, vibrations from cars or planes, and rough handling. When it comes to wire assemblies, one of Cloom’s specialties is designing and producing high-quality products that last for years.
We make cable assemblies for AEDs and devices that help with CPR that emergency medical services use. Cloom can make these devices in many different ways, from reusable sub-assemblies with high flex cycles to cheap sub-assemblies that will be thrown away.
Caption: Computations in the medical world
Conclusion
Medical cable harnesses are complex to develop due to their use in a safety-critical environment. Here at Cloom, we offer an extensive selection of cable assemblies and connections. We have what you need, whether for everyday usage, extreme conditions, ultralight transport, small storage, or one-time use. Our medical-grade connectors and cable assemblies are lightweight and simple to use. They are made in an FDA-approved facility and are ISO 13485 certified. Each model is watertight to IP68 standards and features EMI/RFI shielding for secure data transmission. To get the work done, contact us now.
