Tungsten Alloy Shielding For Sterilization Of Medical Devices

With the development and application of modern science and technology, radiation technology has gradually entered people's daily life and played a vital role in the power generation, industrial, medical and other aspects. Radiation sterilization is a successful example of radiation technology, which is mainly used for the disinfection of disposable medical supplies and medical instruments by using ionizing radiation to kill pathogenic microorganisms (including viruses) to eliminate their poison. The secret of radiation sterilization is the radioactive isotope Co-60. Co-60 is a radioactive isotope of cobalt element that can decay into Ni-60 through β decay while emitting high-energy, high speed electron and two beams of gamma rays. Radiation sterilization is the use of these gamma rays to irradiate bacteria and viruses hiding in the medical supplies and medical equipment, resulting in physiological dysfunction, making it cannot able to grow and develop, or even causing death. The medical instruments to be disinfect by using radiation are mainly blood, surgical instruments, artificial heart and lung, suture materials, injection equipment, transfusion equipment, catheters, bandages, dressings, birth control appliances.

Gamma ray, also called gamma radiation, is extremely high-frequency electromagnetic radiation and therefore consists of high-energy photons. When the body is irradiated with gamma-rays, gamma rays can enter the human body and erode the organic molecules (such as proteins, nucleic acids and enzymes organic molecules which constitute living cells), disturbing the chemical process inside human body, and even leading to cell death. Thus, medical workers should take certain precautions during the process of radiation sterilization of medical devices. In addition to time protection (reduction of exposure time), distance protection (away from the radiation source as far as possible), putting a shielding between man and sources to weaken the intensity of the radiation is also a good protective measures. The radiation shielding generally used for shielding radiation is tungsten alloy radiation shielding.

Due to the radiation sterilization is widely used in disinfection of medical devices in recent years, thus tungsten alloy radiation shielding for sterilization of medical devices can be used to shield radiation produced during the process of radiation sterilization. According to relevant research, the shielding performance of a metal material increases with the increasing of its density, therefore tungsten alloy radiation shielding for sterilization of medical devices has great shielding effectiveness with the high density of tungsten alloy, so that can efficiently absorb and shield radiation produced by the process of sterilization of medical devices, to weaken the intensity of the radiation, and prevent medical personnel from being subjected to radiation damage.

• < Prev
• Next >