Can Fastener Choice Affect The Quality Of Robotic Surgery?
Ever since the advancement of medicine, surgery has become a key element in this niche where accuracy and precision are highly sought after. To this end, there are several technologies that have been developed to make surgery more accurate and less invasive.
One of the most recent of these is robotic surgery. In a nutshell, robotic surgery refers to a method of surgery done with the help of robots. This helps the surgeon improve on the quality of his work. For instance, there are some that are designed to cancel out any vibration from the surgeons hands, ensuring that all incisions are as straight as possible. Some even make it possible to do microscopic surgery without too much strain on the doctor.
The quality of the robots used to achieve this usually has an effect on the quality of the surgery. To this end, all the elements that might affect the quality of the robot are always being improved upon. One of these is the types of fasteners used to put the robots together.
Factors affecting fastener choice in surgery robot manufacturing
When manufacturing any surgery robot, there are a number of desirable fastener qualities that are usually sought after. Some of the most important of these include:
Light weight
Easy to clean
Easy to replace
Can withstand repeated vibration and motion
Resistant to biofilm formation to reduce spread of infection
Some of the common fastener types used for the above benefits include titanium socket head cap screws and aluminum socket set screws.
Fasteners have an influence on the smoothness of the robot
For a surgery robot to work well, it has to execute smooth motions each time it’s used. Jerky motions will lead to sutures and incisions that are not even, and this will then negate the value of using the robot in the first place. In addition to using the correct software to run the robot, this issue can also be resolved by making sure that the fasteners used on the robot’s joints are of high quality. Issues such as corrosion of the fastener or collection of material between the fastener and the metal it’s holding together will result in reduced smoothness, which will in turn compromise the quality of surgery. This basically means that when selecting the fasteners for assembling such a device, the issue of quality should never be compromised. Part of this involves buying the fasteners from a source you can trust.
The issue of costs
When selecting fasteners for robotic surgery design, one of the problems that many people run into is cost. For instance, it is known that titanium is an expensive metal, so fasteners made out of it will cost more than usual. However, one also needs to keep in mind the fact that such metals also last long in addition to providing the above benefits. This means that you may find yourself having to replace them once after a very long time. In the long run, the cost of using them makes sense when you consider just how long they can last.
