A medical cart is easier to look at than a surgical instrument or implant. It is a moving frame with shelves, and it may include a drawer or a power supply. The constraints of building one properly aren’t present in general sheet metal work; however, the cart must withstand repeated disinfection, run smoothly and quietly along a hospital corridor, support a load without flexing, and, in some cases, avoid touching or cluttering imaging equipment.
In addition to surgical instruments and medical cabinets, FST Metals also produces medical equipment, dental implants, and crutch parts as part of its medical device manufacturing operations. The following article covers all aspects of a properly fabricated cart: materials, important design features that aren’t obvious, and what hospitals need from a customer to get an accurate quote for a fabricated cart.
What Counts as a Medical Cart?
Medical carts span a broad spectrum, and fabrication requirements vary by cart type.
Crash carts must have emergency resuscitation equipment and be easily identified, easy to open, and dependable in emergency situations, with locking drawers and latches that function every single time.
Medication and nursing carts usually have locking drawers or compartments, as both controlled substances and patient records should be kept secure.
Procedure and endoscopy carts: Because of the specialty equipment carried on procedure and endoscopy carts, integrated cable management and endoscopy-powered outlets are often required, and these surfaces must withstand frequent wipe-down with hospital-grade disinfectants.
A mobile workstation, also known as a computer-on-wheels, is a laptop or tablet with a battery and charger that can be built into the cart body and requires a stable platform because the working surface is higher and further away from the center of the cart than a traditional cart shelf.
Isolation and supply carts are easier to construct but must also meet the sanitation and durability requirements as outlined above.
They all use the same fabric origin and sheet metal cut, bent, welded, and finished, but differ in shelf load rating, drawer hardware, and finishing, so it’s best to call them by cart type, not just dimensions.
Material Selection for Carts That Get Disinfected Daily
When selecting a medical cart material, you must balance corrosion resistance, weight, and cost, and the right choice depends on the cart’s intended use.
Stainless steel
The most common stainless steel is generally grade 304 or 316 and is recommended where systems are regularly chemically disinfected. It is less affected by exposure to the corrosive effects of hospital cleaning products and will remain unaffected after years of use without noticeable degradation. The downside is weight; a stainless cart is heavier than an aluminum cart, which may matter if staff move it regularly.
Aluminum
Aluminum is light, corrosion-resistant, and a fair option for carts that require more mobility than maximum chemical resistance, such as mobile workstations. It is generally cheaper in volume production, as less raw material is required to provide the same structural strength.
Cold-rolled steel with a powder-coated finish
Lower-cost options include cold-rolled steel with a powder-coated finish, and it can be used in lower-exposure environments, but the coating is all that separates corrosion and steel. In a hospital environment with a multi-year service life, a chip or scratch in the coating can be the starting point for rust formation.
When quoting, FST Metals can discuss with the customer which material family best suits the specific environment the cart will operate in and the cleaning procedure used.
Design Details That Matter More Than They Look Like They Should
A couple of design decisions can make the difference between a cart that functions well in a hospital and one that looks like the drawing but creates issues in the real world.
Corner and edge radii: Sharp edges on a mobile cart are a real risk in a busy clinical environment. Staff and patients move around it constantly. Corners should be radiused, not just deburred, and this must be defined on the drawing rather than left to the fabricator’s usual procedure.
Weld seam placement and finish: Weld seams that remain unclean after the stainless steel is welded, particularly on stainless steel carts, provide a surface for bacteria accumulation and one that a normal wipe-down will not clean thoroughly. Continuous and ground smooth joints where they touch and/or face outwards are more important here than in a normal industrial enclosure.
Shelf gauge and load rating: The flexibility of a shelf is not only uncomfortable to work with, but if an object slips or tips over, it’s also a safety risk. The load requirements should be explicitly defined as a specific load that the shelf is expected to support, rather than being based on a general assumption about what the shelf “should” support.
Non-magnetic construction (where applicable). Special mention should be made of carts used near MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) suites; a steel cart would be a major problem near a strong magnetic field. Material is changed from steel to aluminum or non-magnetic stainless grades and should be identified at the beginning of the design process, not worked out later.
Cable and power routing. If the cart has integrated electronics, the routing channels and grommets must be designed out of the block. Cable management that is added to a cart that wasn’t designed for it typically looks and performs worse than planned cable management.
None of these will add much, if anything, to the original design. These become costly when found as a problem after a first unit has been constructed.
How FST Metals Fabricates a Cart, Step by Step
Medical cart fabrication is essentially the same as the process used for sheet metal in all FST Metals’ production, adjusted to the tolerances and finish required for medical equipment.
Cutting. Panels, shelves, and frame components are cut to shape, usually using a laser, and have clean edges and the dimensional accuracy required in parts of assembly that must fit seamlessly together.
Forming. CNC press brakes make consistent corner radii and repeatable panel dimensions possible over a production run, not just on a prototype.
Welding. On medical carts, welds are visible and touched continuously. The quality and appearance of welds and joints must meet a higher standard than in general industrial applications, with higher-quality welds and finish.
Finishing. This includes removing all burrs from each cut and formed edge, grinding welds smooth, and preparing the surface for any coating or treatment required by the application.
Hardware integration. When carts are being supplied as a complete unit, casters, drawer slides, locks, handles, and any electronics are added during assembly, not after by the customer.
In-house laser cutting, CNC bending, and CNC machining equipment are available, keeping these stages under a single roof rather than handled by multiple subcontractors; when precision applications require it, tolerances are as fine as plus or minus 0.001 inches.
Surface Finishing and Infection Control
A medical cart’s finish isn’t cosmetic. It is functional, as it will tell you how well the surface will resist corrosion and how well it can be cleaned.
Powder coating
A steel and aluminium cart surface is treated with powder coating, resulting in a highly durable surface that is also resistant to chemicals and is available in a variety of colors for departmental colour coding, a practice common in hospitals to identify the type of cart on a busy floor quickly.
Passivation
Passivation is a process performed on stainless steel to remove surface-free iron left behind during fabrication and restore the material’s natural corrosion resistance; this is important for a cart that will be disinfected daily for years.
Electropolishing
Electropolishing creates a very smooth, low-friction stainless steel surface, making it harder for bacteria to attach and easier to clean thoroughly, especially on carts used in higher-acuity clinical settings.
The finish must be decided and applied to the material used, along with the cleaning procedure the cart will undergo. This should be done during the same discussion as the material selection, not after its use has been decided.
Quality Standards and What to Expect
FST Metals is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company, which regulates the process controls that guarantee that consistency is maintained in the production of a product, not just on the first unit off the production line. In the case of medical cart programs, this matters because a hospital buyer isn’t buying a single cart; they are buying a batch of carts that must be dimensionally and functionally the same, drawer by drawer and unit by unit.
Where the design specifies it, precision components such as a cart, drawer slide mounting points, hinge locations, and hardware mounting holes can be held to tolerances of plus or minus 0.001 inches, which is more important in the function and fit of the hardware than for the overall outer dimension of a shelf.
From Prototype to Production
FST Metals’ minimum order quantity is one piece, making it easy to create a prototype to test before going into production. This is important for the cart programs in particular, and a physical prototype will show you that things aren’t always as they seem in a drawing: Will the drawer open smoothly under hardware? Will the wheelbase feel stable when it’s loaded and pushed when it does not in a drawing? Does cable routing work when the real cables are routed through it?
Also, unlike with injection molding, which requires dedicated tooling, sheet metal work can be scaled to production volume by simply using the same fabrication process without redesigning the tooling from scratch once the design is proven on a prototype. This makes cart programs relatively quick to move from design to volume production, compared with plastic-part manufacturing.
What to Prepare Before Requesting a Quote
There will be a quick cart quote return and a much more accurate quote if you can provide the following details first:
- The type of cart (crash cart, medication cart, mobile workstation, procedure cart, and so on)
- The load that is anticipated when the product is placed on the shelf or drawer, expressed in real weight.
- The cleaning and disinfection process that it will undergo.
- Whether the cart needs to be located close to imaging equipment or anywhere where non-magnetic construction is required.
- Whether the cart has powered parts and what the electrical requirements are.
Even a sketch or a three-dimensional drawing (or an even more abstract sketch) and any dimension restrictions (doorway width, existing storage space, etc., other equipment that it must co-exist with)
Frequently Asked Questions
Which of the following materials would you choose for a medical cart that is disinfected several times per day?
Hospital-grade disinfectants are best suited to stainless steel, usually grade 304 or 316. Aluminum is a good choice where maximum chemical resistance is not as important as weight and mobility.
Will it take FST Metals several prototype carts to get to a production order?
Yes. The smallest order is 1 piece, which can be used for prototype construction and testing, then moved into production.
Do medical carts need to be non-magnetic?
Only for use in proximity to MRI equipment or other strong magnetic fields—ferrous—use aluminum or specific non-magnetic stainless grades. Specify this at the start of the design process.
What kind of finish should a stainless steel cart be?
It is dependent on the clinical setting. Passivation restores the surface to standard corrosion resistance for general use, and electropolishing creates a smoother surface that is easier to clean and may be required in higher-acuity applications.
What are the tolerances of FST Metals for cart parts?
Precision components, hardware mounting points, drawer slide locations, etc., can be held to within +/- 0.001 inches with the design specification as part of FST Metals’ ISO 9001:2015 quality system.
Summing Up
A medical cart is simple to describe but very particular to build correctly. The material, the weld finish, the corner radii, and the surface treatment all play a role in the performance of the cart during the hospital’s use. Under ISO 9001:2015 quality control, FST Metals produces medical carts from prototype to production, using their laser cutting, CNC forming, and finishing capabilities. To get a precise quote, describe the cart type, load, and cleaning environment.
