Enclosures
Specifying high-performance enclosures for medical devices
By Robert Cox, marketing director, OKW Enclosures H
ospitals and other medical environments may be havens of care and comfort for their patients but they can be tough on electronics equipment. Devices
face a relentless and demanding regime – day after day of intensive use.
Medical equipment can be utilised 24/7/365 by a string of different doctors, nurses and other clinicians. Multiple shifts and a shortage of resources mean the same devices may pass through many hands. And all the while, lives are at stake.
For all these reasons – and most especially the last – technology designed for the healthcare sector must represent the absolute pinnacle of quality. No-one wants to be treated with equipment that looks old, outdated and worn.
So medical devices must exude excellence in their aesthetics, ergonomics, functionality and reliability. And that starts with the very first thing that clinicians and patients see and touch – the enclosure.
Housings must be smart, modern, robust and ergonomic. The specialist demands of the medical sector can also include tamperproof Torx assembly screws, along with cytotoxically
OKW’s BODY-CASE wearable enclosures for personal care devices
OKW’s CARRYTEC enclosures for handheld, table-top and cart mounted medical electronics
that has a high-gloss finish for easy cleaning. Sandwiched between them is a soft-touch TPV sealing ring which adds IP 65 ingress protection (and a splash of colour). BODY-CASE is already proving popular with OEM electronics designers. But that is hardly surprising, given that it’s following in the footsteps of OKW’s award-winning MINITEC enclosures.
safe materials to help prevent Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAIs).
UV stability is also important because the sun’s rays can degrade plastics even when devices spend their entire operational life
indoors. ASA offers better protection from ultraviolet rays than ABS, while an ASA+PC-FR blend also provides increased V-0 flammability resistance.
Protecting personal electronics for health and care
Wearable electronics devices are at the frontline of medical care. They may be small in comparison with the equipment found at hospital bedsides and in scanning suites but they play a vital role as on-call pagers, personal alarms, geolocation trackers and biofeedback sensors.
Specialist enclosures manufacturer OKW recognised the importance of these applications long before the current rise in demand for wearable electronics. And its latest small enclosure BODY-CASE offers a string of technical features that make it ideal. Wristwatch-style BODY-CASE fits a standard 18 mm watch strap but can also be clipped to a belt or pocket, carried loose or suspended from a lanyard or carrying strap. Its two sections are moulded from UV-stable ASA
26 November 2022 Components in Electronics
MINITEC is one of a number of OKW models to have gained an iF product design award. What sets these enclosures apart is the sheer number of permutations available based on version, size, colour, materials and type of intermediate ring. All can be specified as standard so very little customisation is needed. The intermediate rings can accommodate key rings, lanyards, straps and USB connectors. As with BODY-CASE, these rings are moulded from a soft-touch plastic – SEBS (TPE) in this instance – which offers the same tactile and colour-coding/branding benefits. But unlike BODY-CASE, MINITEC can be specified as standard in infrared-permeable PMMA for remote control applications.
Enclosures for wired electronics With the proliferation of infrared remote controls today, it’s easy to forget that wired controllers still play an essential role in hospitals. Losing an unconnected remote at home is irritating but in a hospital it’s unthinkable.
Hospital bed controllers typically tend to be attached by cable, which is why OKW’s CONNECT wired enclosures feature clamps (accessory) for rails up to ø 32 mm. Accessories also include cable gland kits with integrated strain relief – ensuring a secure connection.
CONNECT gets around the issue of tamperproof fixings by not having any assembly screws at all – its two shells snap together. One is flat, the other convex, offering a choice of ‘fronts’. There is also a choice of tops: either smooth or recessed (for a membrane keypad or product label). The sides are flat to accommodate multiple connectors.
www.cieonline.co.uk
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