Body fluid diagnostic analyzers are a critical tool for helping medical professionals diagnose various diseases in settings such as hospitals and remote laboratories. Like many other processes, body fluid analysis has become increasingly automated. Machines are now capable of hundreds of thousands of cycles. These systems cannot afford slowdowns caused by chemical contamination or wear that can hamper efficiency, reliability and lifetime. Surface treatments help ensure these systems achieve maximum uptime.

For example, a major life sciences corporation designed a 29 by 28-inch body fluid diagnostic analyzer that uses magnetic boats to carry magazines with several vials of samples across the staging platform. Although this system is designed to move samples efficiently, the fast, repetitive process can wear the stainless steel surface as well as spill chemicals. In order to protect the surface from wear and chemical attacks, the company evaluated 15 coatings — including our Nedox® electroless nickel surface treatment — over a 16-month period.

Nedox provides superior protection against wear, friction and corrosion for all types of metal parts. It is a particularly attractive option for its ability to eliminate galling, which causes wear that can compromise the analyzer’s reliability. It also performs well in chemically corrosive environments — a particular concern for medical equipment applications such as a stainless-steel body fluid diagnostic analyzer stage. Nedox is available in USDA- and FDA-compliant versions, and it also offers the following attributes:

• Surface hardnesses up to Rc 68.
• Superior mold release.
• Eliminates stick-slip and enables easy cleanup.

After evaluating the various surface treatments, the device manufacturer chose Nedox as the best performer. While the analyzer has a lifetime expectancy of 400,000 cycles, Nedox is working admirably at 500,000 cycles and beyond. Today, the manufacturer produces 500 body fluid diagnostic analyzers annually with our Nedox surface treatment, and production is expected to increase to 1,500 units within the next two to three years for installation inside hospitals and remote laboratories.

A Good Prognosis for Medical Equipment

As medical diagnostic equipment becomes more automated, constantly moving mechanisms and chemical attacks can cause unwanted downtime. This successful application demonstrates how Nedox surface treatments outperform their base metals and other coatings to solve these and other problems. Nedox coatings provide a dose of prevention that is the best medicine for critical medical equipment reliability.

For more information about Nedox surface treatments, visit our product page.