Tech Chronicles in MedGas Equipment

[DoughBallin14]

Figured i would piggy back off of the job opportunity thread i started and create one to entertain any one who wants some reading material here and there to pass the time sitting on the pot maybe!!

Ill try to keep it not boring day to day stuff.

Starting this Good Friday off with a old dry vane vacuum system that pretty much decided to eat up a couple thousand bucks in graphite carbon vanes. Got them replaced and cleaned up back in business! These will soon be getting a rental pump from us and a nice retro fit to claw oil less pumps.

 

[monkeyswrench]

My mind works in a weird Rol-a-Dex of mechanical crap....I thought old supercharger design first, the apex seals from a rotary...I need a hobby.

 

[DoughBallin14]

View attachment 1497471
My mind works in a weird Rol-a-Dex of mechanical crap....I thought old supercharger design first, the apex seals from a rotary...I need a hobby.

Ha i figured between you and @rrrr there would be lots of rol a dex replies!! Always a wealth of comparisons from you guys in threads!

Same concept right as the supercharger just spinning a different direction most likely. Also a screw drive compressor is pretty darn close to a twin screw supercharger as well

 

[rrrr]

That's the same design vacuum pumps in small aircraft use, just bigger. The pumps provide power to spin the aircraft's gyro instruments.

 

[DoughBallin14]

That's the same design vacuum pumps in small aircraft use, just bigger. The pumps provide power to spin the aircraft's gyro instruments.

Hopefully more reliable in airplanes. These damn things are loud too they leave just a ringing waw waw waw noise in your head when working near them haha.

Major pain to clean out when the vanes shatter and all the filters get clogged with shrapnel plus the bio factor of the inlet filters getting clogged with greenish gray stinky micro dried dust particles from patients

 

[monkeyswrench]

Would this be what supplies vacuum to the wall ports in hospital rooms? How much vacuum can they draw?

 

[DoughBallin14]

Would this be what supplies vacuum to the wall ports in hospital rooms? How much vacuum can they draw?

Yes these would supply every patient connection port in the rooms including operating rooms, c section, icu etc.

Depends on the technology of pump but they can pull at least 20 inches of mercury, some can carry as deep as 27-28inhg before the set reliefs open up.
A lot depends on pipe sizing and how many floors the facility is etc etc.

If i am not mistaken what you see us using the most is a dry claw pump which are the most efficient per horse power and i think its around 20acfm per hp but they cap out around 22-23inhg in our area.

 

[Taboma]

Are these systems designed in a manner that isolates the pump itself from the substance being suctioned ?

 

[DoughBallin14]

Are these systems designed in a manner that isolates the pump itself from the substance being suctioned ?

Well they are supposed to be dry systems only, unlike dental vacuum that has a large separator that collects and needs to be cleaned and disposed of which i have seen some that are nasty looking but we dont service those equipment items.

So for medical suction each patient has a small regulator and canister that plugs into the wall ports and that canister is used to collect urine or chest tube “goo” for lack of terms haha, along with saliva and flem etc. so nothing should enter the system but with everything always under vacuum there are particulates and vapors that just find there way through the piping and its usually a greenish dusty looking.
There are also mistakes staff makes like letting those canister overfill or an untrained nurse using it like a real vacuum and sucking up spilled urine directly or blood etc.

The vac systems are required to have particulate filters on the intake side before anything enters the pumps. I have also never seen any liquid make it to a pump. They say something about the heat or vaporization of liquid as it travels under high vacuum etc.

Here are a couple versions of the inlet filters. The clear container shop vac looking filters and then the small round white canister in the lower picture is an inlet filter.

 

[rrrr]

It's interesting to see the technology behind a common hospital appurtenance, the wall vacuum port.

I like it when inmates share their unusual careers, and this is pretty cool.

 

[DoughBallin14]

It's interesting to see the technology behind a common hospital appurtenance, the wall vacuum port.

I like it when inmates share their unusual careers, and this is pretty cool.

Oh ya there are plenty of things that put it all together!
Funny when nurses even ask like where does this gas come from.
A lot of then also think its never ending and dont even think that someone else or some mechanical system is providing it.

 

[DoughBallin14]

Happy Monday All,
Here is a little more equipment that supplies all those patient port connections inside rooms within a hospital.

I am up in Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Santa Ynez for Cottage Hospital doing their required annual pm inspection. Its an 80 hour work week full of overtime to get er done with 2 guys. We test every alarm device, test every patient connection for operation, leaks, flow, pressure, purity, and gas concentration. In basic terms.

So we have two manifold systems here for high pressure nitrogen and nitrous oxide “H” cylinders these will be regulated down to operating pressure and pipes from the Loading Dock area and piped into the facility supplying areas like the operating room, procedure rooms, cath labs, endoscopy, nitrogen also can be split off to support pneumatic brakes for articulating booms in the operating rooms. These are electronic controlled switching valve with a mechanical operating failsafe for power loss incidents. Also set up as a primary bank of cylinders and an auto transfer when empty to the other side bank all notified by an alarm the say hey reserve in use and time to change out the empty side!

Also a pretty standard bulk cryogenic oxygen system. This is 6000 gallon capacity primary tank with vaporizers and a reserve vessel that is 1500 gallons.
All piped into a regulation stand with redundancies for regulators and alarm initiating devices.

 

[rrrr]

Nice. I've unfortunately had many opportunities to check out the oxygen yard and gasifiers from a guest room window, around here with the high humidity the gasifiers have a few inches of ice on them occasionally.

 

[DoughBallin14]

Nice. I've unfortunately had many opportunities to check out the oxygen yard and gasifiers from a guest room window, around here with the high humidity the gasifiers have a few inches of ice on them occasionally.

Oh ya those vaporizers always have a good thickness of ice leading to them! But man those covid days were rough! There were small facilities icing all the way thru then and into the mainline right up to the building. They were using so much back then on high flow nasal cannulas and patient ventilators that the liquid wouldnt convert to gaseous in time and facilities were using water shower contraptions to help with icing and alternating vaporizers every couple hours as one defrosted.

We have been on handfuls of new upsized vaporizers construction projects since covid.

 

[DoughBallin14]

Alright here is a clip of the PM testing side that facilities are required to do annually to keep their compliance agency happy so they can operate all the different permitted categories of the hospital. All gases we test would be oxygen, medical air, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, lab/dental/instrument air, vacuum, and wagd (waste anesthetic gas disposal)

Here we have our custom created fixture for reading flow, pressure, and gas oxygen concentration as well as checking for latching or unlatching operation of the connection.

The stand alone flow meter is specific to suction flow and the one mounted on the test rack is for positive gases.

The red Fluke Amprobe is an ultrasonic leak detector that helps find the leaks around connections or behind covers or fascia design panelling. It can seriously pick up a gnats fart haha its pretty handy.

Here is an example of finding a leak on a connection that will get documented along with the flows and pressure of that connection. A book of deficiencies will get compiled and we will come back to repair all on the list. Usually its dried out o-rings or a complete front assembly we can replace while the system is live without patient impact. The rough in assemblies in the walls are required to have basically a secondary check valve that seals so we can service or replace the front assembly.

Youll also see on the test rack some of the different styles of connection adapters so we can test them.

 

[DoughBallin14]

Well here i am concluding the Santa Barbara world tour! Clocked in a quick 80hr total in 5 days with plenty of OT and DT for the pay week.
For some reason a bit more torture felt needed in my life so decided to complete a high pressure gas manifold upgrade for kaiser west la. Easy saturday double time day for a grand total of 95 hours I would really be enjoying that no tax on overtime idea right about now haha.

Anyways here we have a late 90s early 2000s chemetron gas distribution manifold with 4 nitrogen cylinder on each side for redundancy along with high/low pressure alarm initiating devices and BMS(building management/monitoring systems) transducers for remote pressure reading of each side.

Now its an upgraded version that actually has available parts, its serviceable, and should be trouble free for another 10 years or so! Not my cleanest work but did what i could, plenty of electrical to move around along with plenty of low volt wiring that someone decided to run all in individual emt conduits. Got lucky with the retro an only needed our plumber to braze a few fittings for the existing pressure relief valve piping. Supply piping got lined up just enough to use a union.

The old manifold picture is of the other manifold in the room that will get upgraded also soon. I just forgot to get a before picture of the one i worked on today. All the conduits you see with the seal tite flex on it, all went down the wall to the underside of the old manifold so i cut them and added the seal tite to the new locations of specified wire locations on the new manifold.

 

[DoughBallin14]

Another Casual Monday delivery and set up of one of our rental medical air compressors for Henry Mayo hospital.
They will be replacing their original Champion system which is no longer a champion!
Our system will take over duties until the new system is done! Until then we get monthly rental money.
So here we go. Rolled in our all in one duplex 10hp scroll compressor tank mounted with redundant desiccant dryers and monitoring system. Then took what we call “Oxy-Lifeline” patented corrugated stainless braided outer casing hose from out source valve ran it 100’ up to their receiver tank from the old system and is now feeding the facility. Had ol sparky connect our SO cord for power to the facility panel and cya later bill it move on!

 

[DoughBallin14]

Well on todays episode of the boring parts of the job!
Acting as the fill in onsite IOR (inspector of record) baby sitter basically.
New building for UCLA. Here to watch and quality control the product, install procedures, and brazing practices for the medical gas piping. Loads of standing and watching going to drive me nuts! But it needs to be done!

 

[HNL2LHC]

Well on todays episode of the boring parts of the job!
Acting as the fill in onsite IOR (inspector of record) baby sitter basically.
New building for UCLA. Here to watch and quality control the product, install procedures, and brazing practices for the medical gas piping. Loads of standing and watching going to drive me nuts! But it needs to be done!

View attachment 1503827 View attachment 1503828 View attachment 1503829 View attachment 1503830 View attachment 1503831

What do you change per hour to watch paint dry and do you offer watching grass growing services too? Make the best of it my friend.

 

[DoughBallin14]

What do you change per hour to watch paint dry and do you offer watching grass growing services too? Make the best of it my friend.

Haha let me check my schedule!!

Its an all union site also so they should be taking their second break soon and stretch and flex shortly after!
Always good conversation at least so no complaints. Plus i guess its safety week so they are providing lunch daily

My mind and hands just wants to be servicing something or troubleshooting. Hmm sounded a bit homo for a minute!

 

[DoughBallin14]

Now we are getting some burning done, inert nitrogen nf flowing in the piping to prevent oxidation while brazing plenty more to tomorrow.

Get this section all brazed and get it under 24hr pressure test and check all the joints. Then carry on, lots more to go, this was probably 100 feet of piping x3 with about 35 joints, type k copper piping of 3/4”, 1”, and 1-1/4”.

 

[lbhsbz]

Is copper for this application just the normal stuff or does it come sealed on both ends and nitrogen filled to keep it clean inside?

 

[DoughBallin14]

Is copper for this application just the normal stuff or does it come sealed on both ends and nitrogen filled to keep it clean inside?

Ya 99% of the time its copper type k or L depending on which gas astm b819 or b88,

Usually cleaned internally at the factory with a solution then dried and capped for shipping.
All piping and fittings have to be cleaned and marked safe for oxygen or medical use with supporting documents from manufacturer, during fit up ends need to be covered and must be brazed within 8 hours of fit up.
Using BCup filler rod without flux or silver BAg with flux for brazing of dissimilar metals.

 

[lbhsbz]

Ya 99% of the time its copper type k or L depending on which gas astm b819 or b88,

Usually cleaned internally at the factory with a solution then dried and capped for shipping.
All piping and fittings have to be cleaned and marked safe for oxygen or medical use with supporting documents from manufacturer, during fit up ends need to be covered and must be brazed within 8 hours of fit up.
Using BCup filler rod without flux or silver BAg with flux for brazing of dissimilar metals.

So...you're not buying pipe at home depot lol

 

[DoughBallin14]

So...you're not buying pipe at home depot lol

Ha i am here to see if they are buying it from homedepot haha. Which has happened on the past on small jobs!

 

[DoughBallin14]

Finished off the week with anotha one!! Finally got to use my hands after all the inspection work.

VA Sepulveda in North Hills. Identical swap out upgrades as the one a couple weekends ago.
This time our buddy from Hamilton Plumbing got the brazing done for the pressure relief piping change.

All back in business!

 

[lbhsbz]

Please do something about those chains

 

[DoughBallin14]

Please do something about those chains

Trust me Pat i wanted to redo the whole thing and put actually racks in that we make.
I did the best with what was there. Its all one chain believe it or not.
They have be written up on it every year but nothing gets is done. Half the time they are on the floor

 

[rrrr]

Trust me Pat i wanted to redo the whole thing and put actually racks in that we make.
I did the best with what was there. Its all one chain believe it or not.
They have be written up on it every year but nothing gets is done. Half the time they are on the floor

Earthquake restraints aren't required by law?

 

[DoughBallin14]

Earthquake restraints aren't required by law?

The only code requirement vaguely is secured with chains or straps in two rows bottom and top ish haha

 

[DoughBallin14]

We make seismic shaker table tested storage racks that are sold on granger but they are steel and have attached chain. They can be configured in many different ways

 

[lbhsbz]

Trust me Pat i wanted to redo the whole thing and put actually racks in that we make.
I did the best with what was there. Its all one chain believe it or not.
They have be written up on it every year but nothing gets is done. Half the time they are on the floor

Show 'em this along with a bit of explaining....

Americanmusclehd™ on Instagram: "Dude better have played a lotto ticket after that! #closecall"

14K likes, 199 comments - americanmusclehd on May 6, 2025: "Dude better have played a lotto ticket after that! #closecall".

www.instagram.com

 

[DoughBallin14]

Show 'em this along with a bit of explaining....

Americanmusclehd™ on Instagram: "Dude better have played a lotto ticket after that! #closecall"

14K likes, 199 comments - americanmusclehd on May 6, 2025: "Dude better have played a lotto ticket after that! #closecall".

www.instagram.com

I saw that the other day!! Pretty darn lucky guy right there! They are all guberment employeeees they dont care