At the conclusion of our webinar, Tips for Designing Custom Cable Assemblies Used in Medical Diagnostics Equipment, we had several questions submitted to our presenter, Epec Product Manager Team Lead Steven J. Goodman. We compiled these into a readable format on our blog.
Q&A From Our Live Webinar
Quick Links:
- We saw the images of cardiac monitor cables. Does your company support EC53-rated cables?
- Looking for more information on coiled cables. Are you able to make these using the direct skin materials?
- Our power cords have that small, green dot on the plug. Can you make those, and does that cost extra?
- You mentioned TPU jackets are more flexible. Why aren't you using this in all your medical cables?
- We need a cable with those touch-proof electrodes and banana plugs, but we don't know how to call them out on our drawing. Can your team help us develop this cable?
Watch the Recording Below:
Question: We saw the images of cardiac monitor cables. Does your company support EC53-rated cables?
Answer: Yes, we do. EC53 is a specification that helps ensure that these EKG-type cables will function as desired. We can absolutely support that if that's necessary. Not all of our customers have required that for some of these types of devices, but if that's needed, like the other specifications we talked about, we would need to know that early on to make sure we can align our build plan with what you're trying to accomplish.
Question: Looking for more information on coiled cables. Are you able to make these using the direct skin materials?
Answer: Yes, absolutely. When it comes to coiled cables, we can make them out of almost any material. In our experience, the coiled cables, their performance is going to be best with some of our TPU materials. The TPU itself is available in a biocompatible formulation, and the TPU material has excellent flexibility and elastic properties, allowing it to form on the mandrel for a coiled cable to give you that nice spring effect that you may be looking for if that's what you're trying to accomplish. For us to actually build a coiled cable, we would just need your help to better define the coil shape. Usually, it's the overall length, the outer diameter of the coil, and then the diameter of the cable itself. And with those three pieces of information, we can fully define the coil.
Question: Our power cords have that small, green dot on the plug. Can you make those, and does that cost extra?
Answer: That small green dot is common on what's called hospital-grade cables, specifically power cables. But yes, we can absolutely do these. These are common for us. They do cost a little more because of the processing. I know one specific change here with a lot of these power cords, some traditional like NEMA plugs, may use a stamped or formed terminal or plug. These hospital-grade power cords use solid pins and components, making them more robust. So, that's just one of the things that we can help with when it comes to hospital-grade.
Question: You mentioned TPU jackets are more flexible. Why aren't you using this in all your medical cables?
Answer: I would like to use TPU in all of our medical device cables. However, TPU is more expensive than PVC. And given the application, some of our customers don't need that. They're good with the lower cost, either standard PVC or a medical-grade PVC. In our experience, if your application has one of those coiled cables or if it has an application that will be in a high-flex environment or maybe used and routed around the patient's body, you're going to want something that has the most flexible properties that we can offer in a reasonably priced cable. Our medical-grade TPU is an excellent choice for that, but it's not appropriate for all of our cables.
Question: We need a cable with those touch-proof electrodes and banana plugs, but we don't know how to call them out on our drawing. Can your team help us develop this cable?
Answer: Yes, absolutely. The touch-proof electrodes, I believe you're referring to, are a very common standard overmold for us. We have house tooling for the touch-proof electrodes. It's basically an overmolded shroud with a small terminal on the inside here. But as I said, we have existing house tooling that we can use. We can make these with our standard overmold material and/or our biocompatible material. The same is true for the banana plug, another very common male plug here, depending on what the customer is trying to do here.
Key Takeaways
- EC53-rated cardiac monitor cables can be supported when the requirement is identified early in the design process.
- Biocompatible TPU offers the flexibility and elasticity needed for coiled cables and high-flex medical applications.
- Coiled cables can be defined using three key dimensions: overall length, coil outer diameter, and cable diameter.
- Hospital-grade power cords use more robust components, including solid pins, but typically cost more than standard power cords.
- Existing tooling and engineering support can simplify the development of cables with touch-proof electrodes and banana plugs.
