Wireless control facilitates care

Dalelven Produktutveckling received the assignment to develop a new wireless hand control to remotely controlling their work chairs. There is a need to controlling some chairs remotely, for example when a patient is to be x-rayed, the nurse goes out of the room to avoid to be exposed to X-rays, but still wants to have the opportunity to adjust the chair’s settings. They already had a hand control with wire as well as an older outdated wireless hand control which they had begun to take off the market.

– A compact and user-friendly wireless remote control has been a popular option for our clinic chairs and something that facilitates and streamlines for both patients and healthcare staff, says Martin Bonnevier Kronlid, development manager at Mercado Medic.

The new wireless controller will be integrated with the existing control system from REAC. This means that the receiver must be connected to the same connector as for the control system with wired communication .

For Dalelven, the work entailed an overall responsibility to transform Mercado Medical’s idea to a finished product and included design, mechanics, electronics, programming, testing and verification. The remote control combines REAC’s control protocol with a self-developed wireless protocol for IR. The reason that the remote control communicates by IR is that hospitals have high demands that wireless communication not will affect other equipment. Controlling by IR does not affect any other equipment at all. IR is also easier to certify than radio and at the same time meets all the requirements for range and directional sensitivity. 

The result of Dalelven and Mercado Medical’s work was an ergonomic, balanced and grip-friendly wireless remote control with the same functionality and design as the wired one. It is a plug-and-play solution, you just have to connect the receiver, then everything works as usual. Both hardware and software are developed for low energy consumption and have several sleeping modes, as well as adapted hardware design.

It is important for Mercado Medic to produce locally in Sweden. It is a way of securing deliveries, creating jobs, having control of the entire supply chain with material origins, but above all it is a way of contributing to reduced environmental impact when transports for materials and products are significantly shortened. Both plastic and electronics are produced and assembled in Sweden. Dalelven has worked closely with the producers and been a driving force in the start-up of the production.