Due to ever growing cost pressure, hospitals and doctors’ surgeries seek to use increasing amounts of new technology to increase productivity. This situation – combined with the fast development of healthcare systems in the emerging countries – has a considerable influence on development demands. Often, technology is sensitive. As a leading systems supplier for fastening and assembly technology and as an international service provider, Böllhoff is a recognised partner to manufacturers of medical technology and their suppliers. Be it fixing solutions for plastic mouldings, sheet or cast metals and/or a need for close tolerance seals and gaskets in high temperature materials – Böllhoff stands for innovative and reliable solutions.
Böllhoff Customer benefits at a glance
- Awareness of future trends
- Innovation management thanks to in-house research and development
- Development partnerships with companies and research institutes
- Application engineering
- In-house prototype construction and testing grounds
- In-house certified testing laboratory according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025 Up-to-date CAE technology
Global competition in the medical industry results in high costs and innovation pressure. Therefore, it is innovative ability and technical potential that are the basis for medical technology manufacturers’ chances of success. The acceleration of technical progress as well as the satisfaction of customer needs, lead to an ever advancing technological solutions to a growing variety of applications. Moreover, on the supplier side, there is an increasing focus on intercompany cooperation in forms of strategic partnerships aiming at an improved competence in the fields of development, production and logistics
As a full-range and system supplier, Böllhoff offers products and services for every part of the medical supply chain. Customer orientation starts with research and development. Böllhoff delivers fasteners and assembly technology right to the heart of the production process. There, customised equipment and machines designed according to the Böllhoff portfolio, ensure high efficiency. Optimised processes avoid downstream costs. Our partnerships are based on an uncompromisingly high quality standard and a corporate culture imbued with the spirit of a family business.
The ECOTECH service (Economic Technical Engineering) allows manufacturers and suppliers of medical technology to benefit from technical advice from Böllhoff engineers. Their industrial know-how and advice covers all areas of fastening technology, corrosion protection and process improvement. The simultaneous standardisation and optimisation of fasteners in the development stage simplifies assembly and reduces in-place costs. In view of an ever faster technological development and increased competitive pressure, this service is a crucial advantage in the medical industry. Many companies in the medical sector make half of their turnover with products that are less than two years old. The share of research and development in the production value is often twice the total value of industrial products. Production and in particular development costs are a decisive factor for the introduction of new medical products. Optimised fastening and assembly processes reduce those costs and are the key to realising modern products for the medical industry.
Our technical support engineers provide:
- Realisation of process improvement opportunities
- Optimisation of assembly methods
- Design and development of fasteners
- Supply of customer-specific special articles
- Application engineering tests in certified laboratory
The Böllhoff solution
- Problem definition on site
- Concept for fastening solutions
- Production of prototypes or use of existing fasteners
- Suitability check by evaluation of mechanical and physical values
- Testing under consideration of practical requirements
- Summary of results in a report
- Project delivery support
Case study - Fasteners with a smooth bedside manner
Attention to both hygiene and installation flexibility in hospital bedhead trunking systems posed some challenges to manufacturers that have been perfectly satisfied by a simple press fixing, as Böllhoff’s Andy Witts explains.
It is easy to presume that the trunking systems that surround hospital beds are mere commodities – most people do not even notice them unless they are laid up in the bed with nothing else to stare at.
The plethora of not just medical equipment and services (such as oxygen) that are supplied to hospital beds, but also emergency call systems, monitors and patient communications and entertainment systems, mean that the infrastructure at the bedside is now substantial. It would simply be untenable to have such a bundle of cables and tubes trailing in the ward.
Hospital bedhead trunking is not equipment one might immediately associate as posing particularly challenging fastening challenges, but the development of ever more sophisticated bed side equipment and recent changes in guidance to hospitals and medic al equipment manufacturers have changed that.
In 2013 the Department of Health published its Health Technical Memorandum 08-03: Bedhead services in which guidelines for the design, installation and maintenance of bedhead trunking is detailed. The main driver behind the recommendations of the Memorandum is the reduction of healthcare associated infection risk.
The design and construction of trunking systems is such that in section 6.8 of the Memorandum it states:
The design of a bedhead services trunking system should be in accordance with BS EN ISO 11197. Key features should include, among others, the following:
- The design of the trunking should have minimal horizontal surfaces and promote high standards of infection control with surfaces that are easy to wipe clean.
- The front surfaces of the panels should generally show no fixing device used to attach components to the panels, nor should there be any obvious blemishes resulting from such fixings.
There are other key features, such as the ability to change the configurations of the bedhead services quickly from, say, an emergency unit to a cardiac one. In section 5.18 of the Memorandum, it states that trunking must among other things:
- allow the speedy and economic adaptation, amendment, reconfiguration or addition of services by competent people to take account of changing clinical functionalities or variations in clinical or patient needs;
- be integrated as much as possible to provide a neat and tidy arrangement that ensures that the risk of harm arising from accidental trips over loose cables and/or contact with articulated overhead equipment support arms is minimal. The use of purpose-designed and manufactured trunking systems and suitable articulated arms to provide coordinated support access to bedhead services may be considered to aid this process;
- be readily accessible for maintenance
- The ideal solution for fixing the trunking facias is to have a blind fixing, hence presenting no protuberances in which dirt or harmful bacteria can gather. For one manufacturer, the answer was to design in SNAPLOC® fasteners from Böllhoff. These quick and easy push fit fasteners provide a secure fixing that can be readily disconnected for maintenance or reconfiguration purposes.
SNAPLOC® fasteners consist of only two component parts that are easy to assemble and detach. The fasteners can be integrated into the design of the corresponding components. SNAPLOC® plug-in connections consist of a ball stud and a coupling. Inside the coupling there is a ball socket the ball stud snaps into.
The trunking manufacturer punches holes in an aluminium extrusion and SNAPLOC® couplings are pushed into place by an operator. Studs are welded onto the other part of the component and the fasteners’ ball studs are screwed on. Parts then snap together showing a clean and professional finish. Apart from enabling the manufacturer to meet the guidelines of the Health Technical Memorandum, the use of SNAPLOC® also significantly reduces labour costs because the assembly operations are simpler and quicker.
SNAPLOC® fasteners come in a huge variety of types, patterns and configurations, including a range that can be moulded in for plastics applications. They are robust and long lasting and provide an extremely elegant solution for secure press fixings.
