Wires and Cables in the Medical Industry

Proper medical cable management is a very important step during the installation of building services and the subsequent installation of equipment providing means to tidily secure cables. Products such as cable trays, cable ladders, and cable baskets are used to support the cable. It is important to make these cables easily accessible as cables often need to be added, moved, or removed many times during the life of the installation. It is also important to keep the cables organized and separated as they can easily become tangled, making them very difficult to work with. In the medical industry, an unplugged cable can mean the difference between life and death so the cables must be kept organized and labeled. At times, color-coding of cables is used to keep track of which cable is which. Color-coding is often an effective method of staying organized because you can easily distinguish different types of cables and connections.

Medical wire is often custom-made depending on its intended use. Small size, extreme flexibility, and sometimes insulated conductors are some qualities medical companies look for in their wires. Some applications the flexible wire is used for are patient monitoring systems, ultrasound scanners, medical implants X-ray devices and many more. For high-heat situations, silicone wire is often used. It has a soft silicone coating which is extremely resistant to heat. This coating can withstand a 150 watt soldering iron held directly on it for a long time without melting and burning. In addition it is very flexible so it can bend at extreme angles with no problem. Wires can be made to be more flexible by having many little wires combined to make up a larger wire. This is important in routing of wires in tight spaces, a common situation in the medical industry.

Silicone tubing is typically used in applications such as catheters, drains, feeding tubes, and peristaltic pumps. Manufacturers considering silicone for these types of applications can choose from special grades that meet stringent health agency requirements.

The medical electronics industry produces technically demanding designs and specifications for patient monitoring cables and medical equipment cables and new technologies are constantly emerging. Consequently, patient monitoring cables, electrosurgical device cables and other medical equipment cables must be engineered to provide reliable performance day after day in a variety of environments and be able to continue to functioning properly after repeated exposures to sterilization processes such as autoclave, ETO, gamma, e-beam and disinfectants. They must be flexible, yet able to endure a long life while maintaining their soft and pliable characteristics. The medical cable must be able to perform consistently after repeated cycles, often for millions of repetitions. In addition, medical wire and cable can be tailored for a variety of conditions such as extreme low temperature, flexibility, extreme heat resistance, optimum radiation and flame resistance and high strength and purity.