Surgical Holdings: 30 years of Manufacture and Service

Surgical Holdings has been manufacturing surgical instruments in the UK for over 30 years. Based in Southend on Sea, Surgical Holdings selects the highest grade steels for the best long term value for its customers and its instrument designs have been developed in response to the needs of surgeons.

• Surgical Holdings stainless steel instruments are manufactured in accordance with Iso 7153/BS 5194
• Surgical Holdings’ new Duo Surface Finish is applied across its full general surgery theatre range of instruments
• As part of its ISO 13485 quality system, Surgical Holdings undertakes proactive objective quality assessment of the steel used to manufacture instrumentation and sends off routine batches of material for third-party testing and verification
• As well as a range of 4000+ standard surgical instruments, Surgical Holdings works closely with its customers to design new instrumentation for new procedures
• A range of coatings are offered for identification, enhanced performance and hardness, cleaning efficacy and reduced protein adhesion.

Surgical instruments are a critical component of surgical procedures. Southend on Sea’s Surgical Holdings is a family business that has been manufacturing surgical instruments for over 30 years. Every year, Surgical Holdings sells and repairs over 130,000 instruments. We are a key supplier to the NHS and is committed to supplying high quality, cost-effective instrumentation to its customers.

The majority of surgical instruments are made from two types of stainless steel: martensitic and austenitic. Martensitic is magnetic and contains up to 1% carbon which allows the instrument to be heat-treated. Surgical instruments must be hard enough to take and keep a cutting edge (e.g. surgical scissors) or have a certain spring (e.g. artery forceps). Austenitic stainless steel is used for instruments which do not require hardening, such as dental tweezers and hollowware.

Standards

Most surgical instruments start life as forgings or “blanks”. They are then machined and fashioned to the correct size, weight and dimensions. Next, they are hardened using a vacuum hardening process, coated, finished and polished. Before being placed on the market, instruments are fully inspected, CE marked along with the name of the manufacturer and a traceability code on every device.

Surgical Holdings’ stainless steel instruments are manufactured in accordance with ISO 7153, this ensures every instrument has the correct composition, to ensure they can be fit for purpose and perform the action for which they were designed.

The highest grade steels are selected to ensure the best long term value for customers. As part of its ISO 13485 quality system, Surgical Holdings undertakes proactive objective quality assessment of the steel used to manufacture instrumentation and sends off routine batches of material for third-party testing and verification.

Exclusive Design and Unique Surface Finish

Due to its in-house manufacturing facility, Surgical Holdings has the flexibility to design and manufacture bespoke instruments and new instrumentation for new procedures.

Surgical Holdings has developed a new and unique Duo Surface Finish which is applied across its full general surgery theatre range of instruments. This new finish has been developed by looking at what is important in a modern day surgical instrument including:

• Reduced glare – the back half of the instrument is highly polished to remove and imperfections and marks; only then will it have a light wet bead blast applied to it, to give a distinctive high end finish.
• The working end is bright polished by Surgical Holdings’ expert instrument finishers. This addresses the requirement for enhanced cleaning efficacy and also minimise corrosion.
• Bright polish is the best finish to ensure corrosion resistance on the instrument and a smoother finish also ensures reduced protein adherence to the surgical instrument.
• This design has been exclusively Design protected by Surgical Holdings and is only available from the company directly or an appointed distributor.
• Many of Surgical Holdings’ instruments will also have distinct design differences with the user and patient in mind.

Coatings

Surgical Holdings is able to quickly react to the changing dynamics of the surgical instrument market. Surgical Holdings can offer exclusive coatings, from a wide spectrum of colours. These coatings are applied for:

• Identification
• Enhanced performance and hardness
• Cleaning efficacy
• Reduced protein adhesion

As well as manufacturing surgical instruments, Surgical Holdings offer a refurbishment service for surgical instruments.

Thank you for reading the above blog. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on: 01702 602050.

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