The deeper into the body surgeons and engineers must go to install prosthetics, the more crucial it is that installation must go right the first time and that device remain reliable over the long haul. To avoid surgical do-overs, prosthetics must be rigorously tested and meticulously placed.

One thing we learned from talking to research labs is that, although it is far preferable to know at what point a device is likely to fail, all too often testing stops after establishing that the device is very likely to keep working or some minimum period. Why? Because the equipment at hand—especially the autoclave—make testing to the point of failure so cumbersome that it simply isn’t practical.

Research-Grade Autoclaves Optimized for a Broad Set of Research Tasks

The heat and pressure inside an autoclave are great for life cycle testing medical prosthetics that will eventually be used inside the body. But few affordable autoclaves have programmable control systems suitable that allow them to produce both the conditions inside a medical-grade autoclave and run repeated complete cycles without someone babysitting the unit. Our Tactrol Control System is programmable to whatever length cycle you need (up to 999 hours) and for 0 to 999 repetitions, perfect for life cycle testing. You can even customize temperature and pressure ramps, dwell times, add monitoring and more—all while using substantially less water and energy.

Save Money without Compromising Quality

In 2015, we outfitted Blue Belt Technologies with benchtop research-grade sterilizers to help them speed up their life cycle testing of a reusable electrical sensor that could be used to improve the accuracy of knee replacement surgery. With our help, Blue Belt increased its testing throughput of the sensor by 500%, doing months of testing in mere days. What is it worth to you to be able to push a button, walk away, and come back when the testing is complete?