How to decide which flex arm mounting solution is best for your medical device

Flex arm mounting for medical devices isn’t always as clear cut as you’d expect. Every hospital room is set up a little differently, you’ll need a flex arm company that can adapt.

In recent years, many of our customers have come from the medical device field. The advancement of technology has allowed flex arms to become a vital component for nearly any device that needs to be minutely adjustable but also firm enough to stay in place. Companies like GCX work with us to create mounts to work with their stands to be able to hold tablets – whether that’s attached to its headboard system or not. 

These projects have helped us understand what makes for the right end fitting to give your medical device the supple strength AND flexibility that makes a flex arm such a great fit in most cases. In this article, we’ll break down why we usually pair each end fitting with the medical device and try to give some examples from our clients as to how it works (without revealing any proprietary information, of course). 

Medical devices need mounts that keep the flex arm close

Typically, when we work on a mobile medical device, we’re looking to have the gooseneck as close to the user as possible. That’s because reach is ultimately more challenging for a gooseneck than other jointed assemblies. That means you’ll want to pull the mount right up to the bed (or wherever it’s needed). 

The problem is – and we are sure you’re aware of this – that there is such a variety of hospital beds and handrails that it can be tricky for us to design something that accommodates ALL the varieties. That’s why you want a partner who can work with you to create specific designs that will match up with the hospital room that WILL house your device – not a hypothetical one. 

We engineer solutions instead of trying to fit your device to an existing product, which is why we don’t have a huge catalog of back  

We aren’t salesmen, we’re engineers. We don’t just want to package one of our existing products to you and “market” it as a solution. Instead, we’re dedicated to making sure that we FIND the solution first, THEN go with the fitting that makes the most sense to accomplish that goal. We also understand that there is such limited space in a hospital room that your product needs to have maximum impact with as small of a footprint

We use C-clamps often for these projects – because they work. Our C-clamp works with square profiles, which ultimately seems to work very well with most of our mobile device. That said, we always prioritize what the customer wants – and so if something on your device is more akin to a round profile, we’re confident we can engineer a solution to make it work. 

We work with companies to mount flex arms to headwall systems

Our background is in lamps, and often that’s where our customers want the most help – in shining light in a hospital setting. We’ve mounted exam lights to chairs, stationary on a wall, on beds, or even tables. Most of these designs incorporate the flex arm to be designed right into the device, permanently mounted for the greatest support for their device. 

Headwall systems are extremely important to hospitals because they coordinate so many disparate tools to be used for patient health. We’ve worked with many companies, including GCX, to create mounts for headwall systems. While GCX is a great example of what we do, it’s far from the only example. We’re constantly working on more headwall systems, so if your device needs a different setup, we will encourage you to reach out and ask. 

Do you have questions about your next project? Let’s talk.

As always, to find a great solution you need to understand the problem first. In our experience, that’s what we do best. Think of us as an extension of your design team – one that has decades of experience in this specific component. If you have a big idea but need someone to help you flesh out the details of how to integrate a flex arm component (or related end-fittings, integrating lightning cables, etc), then we encourage you to reach out to us. Let’s work through it together and make something great.