Enclosures
Antimicrobial metal and plastic enclosures for medical equipment
Martin Blake, design and technical manager at Vero Technologies Ltd tells us about the new antimicrobial plastic and metal enclosures and panels for the medical industry
T
o help reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infections, Vero Technologies is now able to offer its plastic and metal enclosures and panels doped with the silver-based antimicrobial additive Biomaster, which provides an effective means of reducing bacteria by up to 99.99 per cent for the active life of the product. The key feature is that the silver ion material is added to the raw ABS before the moulding process in the case of plastic enclosures. As the additive becomes an integral part of the material, the efficacy of the protection does not diminish over time, giving far superior protection to external coatings that will inevitably degrade through normal wear and tear, routine cleaning and accidental damage. For front panels and extruded aluminium
enclosures, where the antimicrobial material is added to the anodising process, trials are currently being conducted; preliminary results show similar reductions in bacterial growth rates to those found in plastic enclosures.
Biomaster has been tested on over 50
different species of bacteria, including the commonly encountered MRSA,
E.Coli, Listeria, Salmonella and Campylobacter species. Independent testing to ISO 22196:2011, using MRSA and
E.Coli, has confirmed the effectiveness of the additive. In essence, the test procedure consists of inoculating test samples with a nutrient mix containing a known amount of bacteria. The samples are maintained at 37°C for 24 hours with the amount of viable bacteria colonies being measured. The European test laboratory is the only
Vero Technologies manufactures a wide range of plastic enclosures suitable for hand-held, portable instruments and desktop applications, including such well- known brands as Veronex, IDAS, Apollo, General Purpose Box, Patina and many others. All sizes and colours of the family can be supplied with the antimicrobial additive in the plastic; the external appearance of the housings is identical to the normal versions. Also available are extruded aluminium cases and a large number of different front panel designs for cases and subracks. For OEMs involved in the medical equipment and
one outside Japan to have SIAA, Society of Industrial technology for Antimicrobial Articles, a cross industry-academic group for supervising antimicrobial technology, accreditation.
instrumentation markets, specifying the antimicrobial versions of the products, which can be machined to suit the application without reducing the effectiveness of the antimicrobial protection will reduce time to market and offer a demonstrable benefit in terms of enhanced performance. Antimicrobial moulded enclosures can also be protected against EMC if required, with three alternative internal coatings available.
www.verotl.com
14 November 2018
Components in Electronics
www.cieonline.co.uk
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