In a healthcare environment, products are subjected to intense and constant use, often over a long period of time. Many products used in the domestic environment are not strong enough, as well as failing to meet the recommended specifications. The type of Cabinet hinge used may seem an insignificant detail but is actually critically important. Hinges need to meet multiple requirements and perform reliably for years to ensure that medical professionals can perform their duties effectively and clinical stock can be protected with doors that open and shut properly.

Infection Prevention

With a typical internal cabinet hinge, the door and cabinet edges remain very close to each other and are very difficult to effectively clean. The Systeméd exposed axle hinge allows both edges to be very accessible for cleaning ensuring that there are not any areas close to clinical stock that cannot be cleaned. See photo below showing this feature.

Strength

The hinges we use have been independently tested by FIRA (the furniture institution) and conform to Test Level H for heavy duty use. This is stronger than a standard internal cabinet hinge and will easily outperform a typical hinge regarding longevity. We also fit 3 No. hinges on all cabinet doors over 600mm high and 4 No. on tall cabinets which gives additional strength for the healthcare environment where reliability and strength is more important than what is required in the domestic environment. Testament to the strength of the Systemed hinge is that many projects fitted out more than 15 years ago still have the doors and hinges working perfectly.

Suitability

The Systeméd exposed axel hinge provides 270 degree opening yet also has an extremely slim body;- in busy ward areas it is essential that there is not restriction to the door opening fully back and out of the way;- a traditional internal hinge will stop at 90 degrees meaning that if a trolley or someone passing knocked into it, there is immense leverage on the hinge fixings and in no time at all the door will be hanging off creating an infection prevention problem. Internal hinges that are able to open back on to the adjoining cabinets normally have a very large body restricting the location of internal cabinet accessories and are quite unstable when fully opened with a lot of moving parts. On the other hand, Systemed exposed axel hinges are very slim, can open fully back out of the way and provide no restrictions to the positions of HTM71 accessories.