Indus­tries

Med­ical tech­nol­ogy — pre­ci­sion and reli­a­bil­ity for demand­ing applications

Project request
Tech­ni­cal question
Medical technology

Med­ical tech­nol­ogy places the high­est demands on the qual­ity and reli­a­bil­ity of HMI com­po­nents. At EP Elec­tronic Print, we develop cus­tomized solu­tions that are specif­i­cally tai­lored to the par­tic­u­lar chal­lenges of this indus­try. The min­i­mum safety require­ments and essen­tial per­for­mance char­ac­ter­is­tics of med­ical elec­tri­cal devices and sys­tems are defined in the IEC stan­dard DIN EN 60601. We are happy to help you meet these require­ments with our prod­ucts. Our prod­ucts com­bine state-​of-​the-​art tech­nol­ogy with the high­est hygiene stan­dards and help to ensure the safety and effi­ciency of med­ical devices. 

Areas of appli­ca­tion in med­ical technology

Our HMI com­po­nents are used in a wide range of appli­ca­tions in med­ical tech­nol­ogy, including

Patient mon­i­tor­ing:
Touch­screens and mem­brane key­pads for pre­cise and intu­itive con­trol of med­ical mon­i­tor­ing devices.
Diag­nos­tic sys­tems:
High-​quality dis­plays and cover glasses that enable a clear and distortion-​free pre­sen­ta­tion of diag­nos­tic data.
Ther­apy and sur­gi­cal devices:
Robust and hygienic user inter­faces that also func­tion reli­ably in ster­ile environments.
Med­ical IT sys­tems:
Con­trol ele­ments and HMI solu­tions for hos­pi­tal infor­ma­tion sys­tems that pro­mote effi­ciency and user-friendliness.
Project request
Tech­ni­cal question

Spe­cial require­ments and features

Med­ical tech­nol­ogy places spe­cific require­ments on the com­po­nents used to ensure opti­mum func­tion­al­ity and patient safety. Our solu­tions meet these require­ments through: 

Closed sur­faces

Med­ical devices have spe­cial require­ments in terms of reli­a­bil­ity and the pro­tec­tion of users and patients. In order to avoid mal­func­tions due to the ingress of solids or liq­uids, med­ical devices are nor­mally designed with closed sur­faces or, in the case of med­ical devices, at least the IP-​Schutzklasse 65 gem. ISO EN 60529 recommended.

Medical technology - Closed surfaces

Resis­tance to dis­in­fec­tants and clean­ing agents

Fre­quent clean­ing and dis­in­fec­tion is a per­ma­nent chal­lenge for the mate­ri­als used. The mate­ri­als we use have proven them­selves in prac­tice over many years and there­fore rep­re­sent a safe basis(DIN 42115). Some­times, how­ever, appli­ca­tions require spe­cial clean­ing agents (e.g. highly alka­line or acidic). We will be happy to sup­port you with addi­tional data on var­i­ous resis­tances or sug­gest a suit­able solution. 

Medical technology - Resistance to cleaning agents

Opti­mized readability

Depend­ing on the appli­ca­tion, the read­abil­ity or accu­racy of the rep­re­sen­ta­tion on the dis­play can be a very sen­si­tive issue. The choice of the right com­po­nents, the right opti­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tion and the type of con­nec­tion (e.g. opti­cal bond­ing or air-​gap bond­ing) must be selected with a view to the tar­get. Nei­ther “over­shoot­ing the tar­get” nor “just doing it” are opti­mal in terms of price, qual­ity and performance. 

Air-gap bonding vs optical bonding

Trace­abil­ity of the func­tional components

The demands on qual­ity man­age­ment are con­stantly increas­ing and have there­fore led to increased safety for patients and users. If prob­lems do occur despite pre­cau­tion­ary and risk man­age­ment mea­sures, com­plete trace­abil­ity of the func­tional com­po­nents is required in order to ana­lyze prob­lems accu­rately. We can pro­vide you with the nec­es­sary data at ser­ial num­ber level. 

Complete HMI solution

Pro­tec­tion against liquids

Thor­ough clean­ing and dis­in­fec­tion of devices is more impor­tant in the med­ical sec­tor and there­fore takes place more fre­quently than in many other appli­ca­tions. Sys­tems in med­ical tech­nol­ogy should there­fore be com­pletely resis­tant to the pen­e­tra­tion of clean­ing agents and dis­in­fec­tants, drugs, steam or water. For med­ical devices, at least the IP-​Schutzklasse 65 gem. ISO EN 60529 recommended.

Automation technology - Protection against liquids

Elec­tro­mag­netic com­pat­i­bil­ity — EMC

To ensure patient safety, IEC 60601–1‑2 spec­i­fies increased require­ments for the EMC behav­ior of med­ical devices. This affects fac­tors such as inter­fer­ence and radi­a­tion, con­ducted cou­pling, etc. The impor­tance of the right con­cept with the selec­tion of mechan­i­cal and elec­tronic hard­ware can­not be empha­sized enough. In the worst-​case sce­nario, there is a risk of rework­ing the final device. 

Medical technology - EMC

Usabil­ity with gloves

The use of gloves is com­mon prac­tice in all med­ical areas for rea­sons of hygiene. The latex dis­pos­able gloves fre­quently used in med­ical tech­nol­ogy are no prob­lem for any of our input sys­tems and can be used with­out any prob­lems. How­ever, thicker gloves made of var­i­ous mate­ri­als such as cot­ton or nylon can also be con­sid­ered if required. 

Automation technology - operability with gloves

Mechan­i­cal resis­tance of the surface

Mod­ern multi-​touch HMI sys­tems are usu­ally equipped with a sta­ble glass sur­face and are there­fore already very robust against mechan­i­cal impact from the out­side. But even if glass can­not or should not be used (e.g. for tac­tile feed­back), we only use films with hard­ened sur­faces (3H or 9H accord­ing to ISO 15184) and thus max­i­mize the mechan­i­cal resilience. 

Automation technology - Impact resistance

Anti-​microbial surfaces

Microbes, espe­cially bac­te­ria, are a per­sis­tent prob­lem in appli­ca­tions with high hygiene require­ments. We can there­fore offer the option of an anti-​microbial coat­ing for our prod­ucts. This reduces the micro­bial load by 97% within 24 hours(ISO 22196). Although this does not replace reg­u­lar, pro­fes­sional clean­ing, it dras­ti­cally reduces the risk of micro­bial spread. 

Medical technology - Anti-microbial surface

Man­u­fac­tur­ing

ISO 13485 is a har­mo­nized stan­dard that for­mu­lates the require­ments for qual­ity man­age­ment (QM) and the QM sys­tem of med­ical device man­u­fac­tur­ers. We are happy to sup­ply med­ical device man­u­fac­tur­ers who man­u­fac­ture in accor­dance with this stan­dard and also pro­vide you with all the nec­es­sary doc­u­ments and information. 

Everything from a single source

Why EP Elec­tronic Print?

At EP Elec­tronic Print, we rely on state-​of-​the-​art com­po­nents and tech­nolo­gies to develop inno­v­a­tive and cus­tomized HMI solu­tions.

Do you have any ques­tions or would you like to find out more about our HMI solu­tions?

Our team will be happy to advise you and work with you to find the best solu­tion for your project. Use our con­tact form or call us directly — we look for­ward to hear­ing from you!

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Tech­ni­cal question

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    EP Elec­tronic Print GmbH
    Am Wei­de­grund 8 & 10
    82194 Gröben­zell     Tech­nis­che Anfra­gen:
    Tele­fon: +49 (0)8142 /420896–20
    E‑Mail: projekte@ep-electronicprint.de     All­ge­meine Anfra­gen:
    Tele­fon: +49 (0)8142 /420896–0
    E‑Mail: info@ep-electronicprint.de