Project Details

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Automated Chemical Compatibility Tester

Company: Philips Ultrasound LLC

Major(s):
Primary: EE
Secondary: ME
Optional: BME, MATSE

Non-Disclosure Agreement: YES

Intellectual Property: NO

Background: There is an ongoing shift toward stricter regulatory expectations requiring robust justification of lifetime compatibility for medical devices. To mitigate downstream regulatory risk, a more rigorous approach is needed to chemical compatibility testing. The current reliance on continuous soaking methods does not accurately reflect real clinical use conditions. Goals: 1) Develop an automated testing system that closely mimics clinical use conditions The system should be capable of covering the entire exterior surface of the probe with the disinfectant. 2) The system should incorporate both spraying and drying processes and be capable of running for a defined number of test cycles. The system should control the number of cycles and keep track of the number of applied cycles. 3) Performing functional testing on the system and comparing the results against the currently used soaking method. Scope: Testing will focus on component-level patient-contacting materials. The test system only needs to replicate the disinfecting (not cleaning or rubbing etc.) process. Material characterization is out of scope for this project.