How Marlin Steel Creates the Best Medical Parts Washing Baskets

Companies in the pharmaceutical industry and the medical field must go to exceptional lengths to maintain sterility. Likewise, their tools must follow the same strident standards of cleanliness. Hospitals also must make sure their tools maintain cleanliness so as not to risk infection in patients.

Maintaining both the sterility and high quality required of their tools is an enormous challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. Stainless steel can help ensure hygienic environments for medical equipment and tools. Having top-quality medical parts washing baskets ensures the medical parts remain hygienic by providing an easy and efficient way to clean and organize them.

However, it is important to research what the best stainless steel wire forms are for medical and pharmaceutical applications to find the best return on investment (ROI). Marlin Steel’s custom wire baskets are top quality options for medical parts washing baskets, but how are they made?

Essentials of a High-Quality Medical Parts Washing Basket

To ensure a top quality product that provides the best in sanitation measures, Marlin Steel ensures that their medical parts washing basket designs follow these standards:

1. They allow the cleaning medium free access to the parts being washed.
2. To prevent fluid buildup that could contaminate parts.
3. Baskets should be able to withstand all process stresses (temperatures, chemical exposure, impacts, etc.).
4. They should keep parts from falling out of the basket.
5. Baskets should fit comfortably within all processing equipment.
6. They should be easy to handle in between processes.

Different Types of Wire Forms for Custom Wire Baskets

When creating a custom wire basket for medical purposes, Marlin Steel’s engineers must decide on the types of wire forms to incorporate into the design. This will depend on the custom wire basket’s application. For instance, if the application involved organizing medical tools, the basket could use an even tray with compression screens for holding the medical instruments flat, or a custom wire insert could be made to hold parts/tools in a specific layout.

For a medical parts washing basket, a stainless steel wire mesh may be welded into the basket to fully enclose the basket’s content on all sides. The wire mesh offers open space that allows air and liquids to freely pass through the custom wire basket so held parts can be washed properly. Since the space between wires is kept tight, the parts themselves cannot pass through.

A hinged wire mesh lid can be added to the top of the basket to enhance security. Even if the basket were to be flipped upside down during the washing processes, the parts inside would be unable to fall out.

Coatings and Materials for Medical Parts Washing Baskets

Due to the harsh washing processes used for some medical instruments, medical parts washing baskets need to be made of corrosive-resistant materials. A stainless steel mesh basket is able to resist temperatures of 1,700 ̊F (926.6 ̊C)—several times greater than the 250 ̊F (121 ̊C) that is necessary to sterilize medical equipment with an autoclave steam sterilization process.

The custom wire baskets also cannot be corroded by the chemicals used in the cleaning process. Additionally, these baskets may need to hold medical instruments coated in bodily fluids or other chemicals that are rich in corrosives, such as salt.

Marlin Steel’s team designs their medical parts washing baskets with high quality alloys to avoid corrosion. Grade 304 stainless steel has superb resistance to most corrosive solutions, though long-term exposure to chlorides can cause pitting. Since chlorides are found in many bodily fluids, the more chloride-resistant grade 316 stainless steel are used to make a longer-lasting custom wire basket.

Additionally, engineers at Marlin Steel often enhance the chemical resistance of each medical parts washing basket by electropolishing them. This process creases a microscopically-smooth stainless steel surface by stripping the surface layer of the basket. A completely smooth surface discourages bacteria and other organisms from gripping to the basket’s surface, further enhancing the cleaning process.

Customizing the Basket for Any Need

Since there is no one size for medical parts washing baskets, one of the challenges for creating a custom wire basket is making sure the basket can fit inside whatever equipment it’s going to be used with. If a basket’s measurements deviate so much as an inch, then it might not fit properly.

Marlin Steel’s engineering team ensures that every custom wire basket has both the proper and consistent dimensions by using advanced factory automation to assemble each basket. These welding robots are capable of consistency a human could only dream of. Additionally, these manufacturing robots work incredibly fast at basic assembly tasks, streamlining the medical parts washing baskets creation process.

The team at Marlin Steel has had years of experience helping design, build, and deliver the best and most efficient medical parts washing baskets for both the medical and pharmaceutical fields to meet their needs.

Interested in a medical parts washing basket for your medical or pharmaceutical application or a custom wire basket for another purpose? Reach out to Marlin Steel to get started right away.