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Customized HMI solutions for medical technology — reliable, precise, durable

Control pan­els, indi­vid­ual mem­brane key­pads & touch dis­plays espe­cially for med­ical requirements

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Technical ques­tion

Why standard HMIs are often not enough in medical technology

Medical tech­nol­ogy places spe­cific demands on the com­po­nents used to ensure opti­mal func­tion­al­ity and patient safety. Standard solu­tions quickly reach their lim­its in this area. With our HMI solu­tions, we meet all the nec­es­sary require­ments. Take advan­tage of tried-​and-​tested stan­dard mate­ri­als and solu­tions so that you can focus on reg­u­la­tory approval and your med­ical application. 

Here you will find some of the most impor­tant require­ments for HMIs in med­ical technology:

Closed surfaces

Medical devices are sub­ject to spe­cific require­ments regard­ing reli­a­bil­ity and the pro­tec­tion of users and patients. To pre­vent mal­func­tions caused by the ingress of solids or liq­uids, med­ical devices are nor­mally designed with sealed sur­faces; con­se­quently, med­ical devices must, as a gen­eral rule, have at least the IP pro­tec­tion class 65 acc. ISO EN 60529 rec­om­mended. This ensures that the devices can be oper­ated reli­ably and safely at all times, both in the demand­ing clin­i­cal rou­tine and dur­ing reg­u­lar cleaning.

HMI Medical technology_Closed surfaces

Usability with gloves

In all areas of med­i­cine, the use of gloves is stan­dard prac­tice for hygiene rea­sons. The dis­pos­able latex gloves com­monly used in med­ical tech­nol­ogy pose no prob­lem for any of our input sys­tems; they can be oper­ated with­out dif­fi­culty. However, if required, thicker gloves made from var­i­ous mate­ri­als, such as cot­ton or nylon, can also be accom­mo­dated. Our sys­tems are specif­i­cally designed to ensure high oper­a­tional accu­racy, regard­less of the type of glove used. 

HMI Medical technology_Operability with gloves

Resistance to disinfectants and cleaning agents

Frequent clean­ing and dis­in­fec­tion is a per­ma­nent chal­lenge for the mate­ri­als used. The mate­ri­als we use have proven them­selves in prac­tice over many years and there­fore rep­re­sent a safe basis(DIN 42115). Sometimes, how­ever, appli­ca­tions require spe­cial clean­ing agents (e.g. highly alka­line or acidic). We are happy to sup­port you with data on var­i­ous resis­tances and sug­gest suit­able solutions. 

HMI Medizitechnik_Resistance to disinfectants

Protection against liquids

In the med­ical sec­tor, thor­ough clean­ing and dis­in­fec­tion of equip­ment is more impor­tant and there­fore car­ried out more fre­quently than in many other appli­ca­tions. Systems used in med­ical tech­nol­ogy should there­fore be com­pletely resis­tant to the ingress of clean­ing agents, dis­in­fec­tants, med­i­cines, steam or water. For med­ical devices, there­fore, at least the IP pro­tec­tion class 65 acc. ISO EN 60529 rec­om­mended. This ensures the safety of patients and users as well as the long-​term func­tion­al­ity of the devices.

HMI Medical technology_Liquid resistance

Optimized readability

Depending on the appli­ca­tion, the read­abil­ity or accu­racy of the rep­re­sen­ta­tion on the dis­play can be a very sen­si­tive issue. The choice of the right com­po­nents, the right opti­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tion and the type of con­nec­tion (e.g. opti­cal bond­ing or air-​gap bond­ing) must be selected with a view to the tar­get. Neither “over­shoot­ing the tar­get” nor “just doing it” are opti­mal in terms of price, qual­ity and per­for­mance. A care­ful bal­ance of these fac­tors is cru­cial to ensure a reli­able and long-​lasting solution. 

HMI Medical technology_Optimized readability

Electromagnetic compatibility — EMC

To ensure patient safety, IEC 60601–1‑2 spec­i­fies increased require­ments for the EMC behav­ior of med­ical devices. This affects fac­tors such as inter­fer­ence and radi­a­tion, con­ducted cou­pling, etc. We can pro­vide your oper­at­ing sys­tem with addi­tional shield­ing lev­els — trans­par­ent or opaque. This keeps your design slim and min­i­mizes inter­fer­ence radiation. 

HMI Medical Technology_EMV

HMIs in med­ical tech­nol­ogy are char­ac­ter­ized by a wide range of appli­ca­tions and diverse uses. We would like to high­light the fol­low­ing areas as examples: 

Diagnostic sys­tems:
High-​quality dis­plays and cover glasses that enable a clear and distortion-​free pre­sen­ta­tion of diag­nos­tic data.

Manual con­trol units:
Membrane key­pads and front pan­els with or with­out light­ing, in plas­tic or alu­minum hous­ings.

Therapy and sur­gi­cal devices:
Robust and hygienic user inter­faces that also func­tion reli­ably in ster­ile environments.

Medical IT sys­tems:
Control ele­ments and HMI solu­tions for hos­pi­tal infor­ma­tion sys­tems that pro­mote effi­ciency and user-friendliness.

Our ref­er­ence cus­tomers include well-​known com­pa­nies and insti­tu­tions from the med­ical tech­nol­ogy sec­tor who rely on our solu­tions and use them suc­cess­fully in their applications:

  • Fresenius
  • MED EL
  • Dornier MedTech
  • Getinge
  • World of Medicine

Do you have any ques­tions? We have the answers! In our FAQs you will find an overview of the most fre­quently asked ques­tions about HMIs in med­ical tech­nol­ogy. If you can­not find the right answer here, please do not hes­i­tate to con­tact us directly — we will be happy to help you. 

Hygiene & clean­abil­ity — smooth, closed sur­faces, resis­tant to dis­in­fec­tants
Reliability & safety — high reli­a­bil­ity, com­pli­ance with stan­dards, IP pro­tec­tion
User-​friendliness & ergonom­ics — intu­itive oper­a­tion, glove oper­a­tion
Readability & pre­ci­sion — good vis­i­bil­ity, high res­o­lu­tion, clear dis­play
Robustness & dura­bil­ity — resis­tant to liq­uids, impacts and con­tin­u­ous load

Surfaces should be smooth, closed and chem­i­cally resis­tant, e.g. glass or spe­cial plas­tics. They should also be elec­tri­cally insu­lat­ing to the outside. 

Yes, depend­ing on the appli­ca­tion, the size, oper­at­ing con­cept, opti­cal spec­i­fi­ca­tions and inter­faces can be adapted. With us, you get every­thing from a sin­gle source!

Whether it’s spe­cial dis­play sizes, hous­ing mate­ri­als, user inter­faces or brand­ing – the more pre­cisely the require­ments are defined, the more accu­rately we can develop the HMI.

Our HMIs offer flex­i­ble inter­faces (e.g. USB, I2C) so that they can be inte­grated into IT and med­ical sys­tems. Customer-​specific adap­ta­tions to pro­pri­etary inter­faces are also possible. 

Optical bond­ing is a method used to bond touch dis­plays and pro­tec­tive glass or films together with­out an air gap. The use of a trans­par­ent opti­cal adhe­sive cre­ates strong, bubble-​free bonds that min­imise reflec­tions and sig­nif­i­cantly improve opti­cal qual­ity. Optical bond­ing offers increased resis­tance to shocks and vibra­tions and pro­tects the dis­play from dust and mois­ture ingress. Optical bond­ing pre­vents con­den­sa­tion from form­ing in front of the display. 

ISO 13485 is a har­monised stan­dard that sets out the require­ments for qual­ity man­age­ment (QM) and QM sys­tems for med­ical device man­u­fac­tur­ers. We are happy to sup­ply med­ical device man­u­fac­tur­ers who man­u­fac­ture in accor­dance with this stan­dard and will also pro­vide you with all the nec­es­sary doc­u­ments and information. 

The deci­sive fac­tor is whether the HMIs are used in brightly lit oper­at­ing the­aters, in mobile devices with day­light expo­sure or in a nor­mal hos­pi­tal envi­ron­ment — this influ­ences bright­ness, con­trast and dis­play tech­nol­ogy.

With many years of expe­ri­ence as a man­u­fac­turer, we know the spe­cific require­ments of the indus­try inside out. Our exper­tise in tech­ni­cal solu­tions enables us to develop reli­able, inno­v­a­tive and prac­ti­cal HMIs that meet the high­est demands. 

General questions

With our man­u­fac­tur­ing part­ners in Asia, we can offer a low-​cost alter­na­tive for almost any HMI.

- Long avail­abil­ity of mate­ri­als
- As few prod­uct changes as pos­si­ble
- Traceability
- Consistent qual­ity
- Local con­tacts for ques­tions and find­ing solutions

Yes, of course EP can sup­port you with the inte­gra­tion of your exist­ing dis­play and elec­tri­cal com­po­nents. Our team is at your side with exper­tise and prac­ti­cal solu­tions to ensure smooth and effi­cient inte­gra­tion into your exist­ing application. 

1. Send enquiry: Please send us all avail­able infor­ma­tion along with your enquiry, such as draw­ings, require­ments, data sheets and other documents.

2. Check fea­si­bil­ity: We then check the fea­si­bil­ity of your project inter­nally and con­tact you with any ques­tions or sug­ges­tions we may have. 

3. Quotation: After a suc­cess­ful fea­si­bil­ity study, we will pre­pare a detailed quotation. 

4th order: Check fea­si­bil­ity: With your order, we start cre­at­ing the release draw­ing. Questions may still arise dur­ing this phase, which we will clar­ify together. 

5. Approval & sched­ul­ing: Once you have con­firmed the approval draw­ing, we will start sched­ul­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing the product.

6. pro­duc­tion & deliv­ery: Production starts as soon as the mate­r­ial arrives. After suc­cess­ful pro­duc­tion and out­go­ing inspec­tion, your items are dispatched. 

7 There are no min­i­mum order quan­ti­ties with us: Even a cus­tomized sam­ple is pos­si­ble. Whether small, medium or large quan­ti­ties — we real­ize your project reli­ably and flexibly. 

The deliv­ery time gen­er­ally depends on the com­po­nents used and the tech­ni­cal approval. The deliv­ery time is there­fore deter­mined indi­vid­u­ally when the quo­ta­tion is pre­pared. However, if com­po­nents have already been deter­mined, we can go into pro­cure­ment prior to over­all approval in order to reduce the over­all deliv­ery time. 

You can con­tact us directly via our con­tact form or by e‑mail. Let us know the details of your project and we will pro­vide you with a cus­tomized quote. 

Everything from a single source

Why EP Electronic Print?

At EP Electronic Print, we rely on state-​of-​the-​art com­po­nents and tech­nolo­gies to develop inno­v­a­tive and cus­tomized HMI solu­tions.

Do you have any ques­tions or would you like to find out more about our HMI solu­tions?

Our team will be happy to advise you and work with you to find the best solu­tion for your project. Use our con­tact form or call us directly — we look for­ward to hear­ing from you!

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Technical ques­tion

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