Stainless Steel for Medical Applications
It goes without saying that medical and allied health facilities demand the highest degree of sanitation, To meet these standards, one must ensure that the construction materials used in such facilities are able to endure rigorous cleaning practices.
Among other materials, stainless steel features heavily in such facilities, right down to surgical instruments, Fundamentally, this comes down to its strength and resistance to corrosion.
While it may not be the obvious example of stainless steel in medical applications – that prize goes to the scalpel – stainless steel grates have a lot to offer medical facilities in maintaining safe and sanitised surfaces.
What Types of Stainless Steel Are Used in Medical Applications?
You may be surprised to learn that stainless steel is not just stainless steel. Rather there are a variety of different grades with differences in their constituents, and thus, their properties.
When it comes to stainless steel for medical applications, although there is no formal standard of what constitutes “surgical stainless steel”, there are a number of different grades used for these purposes, generally austenitic SAE 316 stainless and martensitic SAE 440, SAE 420, and 17-4 stainless steels.
Medical Grade Stainless Steel
Often also called marine grade stainless (as indeed we better know it), SAE 316 and SAE 316L stainless steel, an alloy of steel, chromium, nickel, and molybdenum, posses relatively good strength and corrosion resistance. In medical applications, these stainless steels are used for body piercings and body modification implants.
Cutlery Grade Stainless Steel
Cutlery Stainless Steel, i.e. SAE 440 and SAE 420 stainless steels, are high carbon steels alloyed with chromium.
Surgical cutting instruments are frequently made from these grades of stainless due to their hardness, paired with acceptable corrossion resistance, albeit inferior to 316 in this regard, but better than number of other cutlery steels.
How is Stainless Steel Used in Medical Facilities?
As is obvious from the above, stainless steel can endure sanitation processes and is used in medical applications where hygiene is absolutely vital – right in the operating theatre. This, however, is not the limit to stainless steel’s applications in the medical field. Stainless steel is also commonly featured in catering services, bathrooms, handrails, fixed furniture (such as park benches in outdoor spaces), and even flooring surfaces. In a number of these applications of stainless steel grating in particular is just what the doctor ordered!
Why Use Stainless Steel Grates in Medical Facilities?
Stainless steel grating is most commonly associated with drainage needs. However, all of it properties that make it an excellent drainage product (such as corrosion resistant, easy to clean, durable and strong, allow the passing of water and fine particles) make it ideal for a number of other applications, generally those that may benefited by its qualities of drainage, but aren’t as obvious as “shower grates”.
Here are some of the ways stainless steel grates can be employed in hospitals, doctors’ surgeries, allied health practices and residential care facilities.
Drop the dirt at the front door. Rather than the old carpet dust collectors, stainless steel entry mats offer a recessed grated door mat. Instead of dirt and water sticking to or soaking in to a carpet mat, water and dust is drained away.
Stainless steel entry mats provide a flush entrance mat solution, making them the ideal choice for accessibility concerns (wheelchairs, walkers and prams). Furthermore the narrow heelguard grating prevents shoe heels or toes from becoming trapped.
Bathroom and Shower grates
Linear shower grates can be of grate value in hospitals and residential care facilities, as they can facilitate threshold free showers – an obvious plus for accessibility.
Linear showers grates can be installed in a number of locations. In a shower cubicle they can be installed where once there would have been a raised threshold, and with the right fall from inside the shower and outside, make for a threshold free shower.
Alternatively, linear drains are frequently installed along the wall of a shower, making for easy flooring preparation as the require (generally) only a singular slope from
Other Applications of Stainless Steel Grates for Medical Facilities
Building a Medical Facility?
To find out how our stainless steel grates can be utilised in your medical facility, contact our helpful team.