Newgate Technology

In 2007 Newgate staff engaged with a supplier of lasers to create a partnership that means we are able to offer table top Laser Marker to sites at a fraction of the cost of many of the competitors. Many of our customers have already seen the laser being demonstrated and have been impressed by its ease of use and the permanence of the mark made by the laser.

We would like to point out that the mechanism employed to mark the instruments simply discolours the instrument and does not remove any surface material from the instrument. The Newgate laser is able to mark most surfaces from surgical steel to plastic and even some types of glass can be marked.

Independent Testing

Since its introduction a number of our interested customers have enquired about the longevity of the marks made by the laser. To this end Newgate has offered a number of instruments to be tested by the customers. By attaching the instruments to the carriers that enter the washers we have been able to identify that the marks have not degraded in any way after 4 months of continual washing several times a day.

Purchase

The initial expense of a laser marker can be off-putting to some but consider that the laser can mark a wide range of materials and could be shared by a number of departments. In a hospital setting Sterile Services could mark instruments, Estates could identify valuable hardware and IT could mark laptops and expensive handheld mobile devices.

Barcode Readers

As Newgate's main function is the provision of data capture, mainly using barcodes we are able to offer a range of 2D scanners that should meet the needs of most sites.

Compact Fibre Lasers - Our Response

November 2009 has seen the publication of a number of articles relating to the use of Compact Fibre Lasers as the only method for marking surgical instruments. Newgate Technology, in association with our laser marker partners would like to make the following response.

"It is very important to minimise heat generation in medical instruments during marking to avoid causing a corrosion in the instrument material. The vast majority of medical and surgical instruments are made from hardened Martenisitic Stainless Steels, if marked too aggressively the carbon present in the structure of the material can come out of solution, which leads to a rapid loss of corrosion resistance. This will create rusting on the instruments when they are put through the sterilisation process. Our research and the acknowledged differences between laser technologies definitively states that Diode Pumped Solid State (DPSS) lasers (available from Newgate) have significantly shorter pulses and higher peak powers that make it significantly easier to reduce the heat absorption in these materials whilst creating a higher contrast mark due to the higher repetition rates of DPSS lasers when compared to fibre lasers. In our opinion fibre lasers represent too much of a risk to use and their pulse characteristics give increased heating effects when compared with DPSS lasers."