The medical industry is widely spread in today’s world. From the medical and health care products to the machines and technical products, all make the medical world more advanced and innovative around us in today’s updated era. While the medical industry started off with basics and limited solutions and innovations, in the beginning, every country today has made its medical industry grow efficiently. While some countries may lack the essential medical growth and updates, you can easily expect the largest countries to have the best medical solutions today.

So, fighting a disease or achieving medical supervision for any kind of ailment in today’s modern and advanced world is no more a big deal. Medical researches and innovations today have introduced easy treatments and solutions for almost all kinds of basic and common health issues. With all that being said, there’s no doubt that the medical industry has advanced the most as compared to the other industries that occupy a major part of our everyday lives and work processes, i.e., the automobile industry, food industry, etc.

Speaking of the advancement and innovations in the medical industry that is being introduced with time, there’s no doubt that the modern-day technology is playing a huge role in the betterment of the medical devices and surgical instrument. One such popular technology that has brought great improvement in medical products is laser technology. With the laser marking medical devices and laser enraging surgical instruments being common in the medical industry today, it’s certainly a concept worth exploring and understanding. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and explore more about it below in detail!

Importance Of Laser In The Medical Industry: Is It Overrated?

Starting with the understanding of the laser machine’s in the medical industry, we have commonly  seen laser marking medical devices and laser engraving surgical instruments today. However, it usually seems like a modern innovation in the medical industry that may not seem very important; especially when the labeling and sticker prescriptions are easy and common in many areas of the medical industry, the presence of laser technology may seem a little extra. But is that really the truth, or there’s more to the importance and benefits of professionals that prefer laser marking medical devices and laser engraving surgical instruments than sticker labeling them?

Importance Of Laser In Fulfilling Medical Requirements:

Laser and its innovations have made a prominent place in many day-to-day and important industries in our surroundings, especially the medical industry. To achieve extreme satisfaction and accuracy with the medical products and machines nowadays, it is important for the medical products and devices to meet the UDI or Unique Device Identification requirements. These requirements are based on the ISO standards. With that being said, it’s certainly obvious how important it can be to fulfill medical requirements for any medical product or machine to become worth usage and trust by the medical experts and patients.

In this regard, it is essential for the standard-compliant codes to be specified on the medical products in a way that they remain visible and ensure traceability. With these codes, it is easier to obtain the information of the medical products simply by scanning this code. This accessible information that can be obtained through the code specified on the medical product includes:

• Manufacturer’s name
• Item reference
• Expiration date, etc.

With the help of this medical requirement and its obligation in a way that the codes remain intact and visible on the products even after years, it is easier to promote error-free documentation and medical supervision for the patients’ improved health and safety.

Laser technology here plays an important role in making the marking and engraving on medical products and machines more accurate and lasting. Since the laser marking and engravings are resistant to acids, cleaners, and even bodily fluids, they can be a safer and more convenient engraving and marking solution. Another great benefit of this process is that whether you are laser marking medical devices or laser engraving surgical instruments, the laser process ensures that the medical product’s surface structure isn’t damaged or changed in any way. As a result, even if the medical products that are implanted inside a human body have laser engraved information or codes on them, the materials on the label won’t get detached not would it harm the patient even after a long time.

Hence, as compared to the other methods of engraving or marking items, laser marking, and engraving serves as the most reliable method of enlisting and coding medical machines and products for a lasting result.

Medical And Surgical Products That Can Be Marked:

Speaking of the usage of laser for laser marking medical devices and laser engraving surgical instruments, there’s no limit to the usage of laser for improving the medical industry management and tracking of the medical products. However, this doesn’t mean that we can consider the usage of laser technology on all kinds of medical-related products. While there are numerous benefits that come along with laser technology and its usage on medical items, the rays and heat created with this laser may bring along some harmful effects, too – if not used correctly.

Keeping that in mind, it’s important to understand what materials and types of products can be marked and engraved using laser technology in the medical industry. This Includes:

Medical Materials That Are Suitable For Laser Marking:

• Titanium and titanium alloys
• Stainless steel
• High-alloy steel
• Coated metals
• Ceramic
• Plastics (e.g., PEEK for implants)

Medical Products (With Either Flat Surfaces Or Circular Parts) That Are Suitable For Engraving:

• Surgical equipment
• Trays
• Molds
• Syringes
• Stents
• Tubing
• Dental products
• Orthopedic products
• Implants
• Other medical devices

The Ideal Way To Use Laser Technology:

When it comes to using laser technology for laser engraving surgical instruments, it’s important to ensure that the process of performed rightly. Since the medical instruments and products are very delicate and require extreme care, it’s important to maintain essential safety measures while engraving or marking these items. In this way, there is no harm caused to the product and the patients using the laser-marked items. 

Some such important steps that should be kept in mind while laser marking medical devices include:

Maintenance Of Hygiene:

Hygiene is undoubtedly the utmost important factor when it comes to the medical and health industry. Hence, it’s important to ensure the usage of the laser equipment for laser marking medical devices and their parts in a way that the surface of the device remains smooth. As a result, all the existing germs are eliminated while preventing any germ build-up afterward, too.

Creating Marks For Passivation:

Medical products also need to survive passivation. To complete this process, it’s important for the professional or laser engraving user to create a black mark on the medical product/machine with the help of carbon migration. As a result, when this mark can survive passivation, it will also prevent oxidation of the product/liquid inside the medical product for future usage.

Meeting The FDA Requirements:

Performing any technical process on medical products does require the completion of certain medical rules and regulations. Here, meeting all the new and existing FDA requirements is crucial, i.e., the rule of including unique identifying numbers that can help improve the patient’s safety and the speed of the product/medicine recalls. Therefore, ensuring accuracy and quality while engraving the medical products is crucial for the patient’s safety and better medical results.

Conclusion:

That’s all to our short guide on the importance and usage of laser technology in today’s medical industry. What did you find the most beneficial and reliable in terms of laser technology usage in the medical industry?