i have a few of these disposable cautery tools and wonder if anyone knows what the tips are composed of. from the research i have done, most of the
replaceable tips on the permanent units are platinum or an alloy with a high percentage of platinum but would they waste such a precious metal on a
disposable item? i know that, regardless of the content, if the package says sterile until opened and one time use, the doctors have to throw them
away. as you can see from the photo, the tip gets quite hot (in the yellow range). it does not break down over many cycles and long usage. i know i
will have to begin testing to be certain what it is but wondered if anyone here might know offhand if these disposable units contain useful metals.
the only test i have performed so far is to see if it would heat up in a beaker containing methanol, which failed (yes i heated it first) but left me
wondering if perhaps the element was to small or some other factor was limiting a reaction. any thoughts? i suppose it could be nichrome but when you
look for replacement cautery tips, you mostly see platinum.
[Edited on 27-8-2012 by Rogeryermaw]watson.fawkes - 27-8-2012 at 06:05
most of the replaceable tips on the permanent units are platinum or an alloy with a high percentage of platinum but would they waste such a precious
metal on a disposable item?
I would imagine that the disposable unit use a plated coating that's pretty
thin. Given the relative cost-insensitivity to such devices in the USA, I can easily imagine there's a platinum coating on a disposable device. If
not, however, there are plenty of resistance wire compositions that can get to yellow heat for a dozen 5-second cycles before they break.Fleaker - 27-8-2012 at 16:21
Platinum, platinum-rhodium, and platinum iridium alloys are all very, very common in medical devices, especially those that have a long period in the
body like stents, tracheal tube tips, pacemakers and implantable defibrillators.
We see all of that at work, but we have yet to see cauterizing tips. It doesn't mean it's not there, but I would have thought someone would have sent
me the tips by now. Hmph. I'll have to go get mine out of the medical drawer and look at the tip.Rogeryermaw - 27-8-2012 at 20:30
i have a few of these at my disposal so destructive testing is ok. where would you start? hot nitric acid? aqua regia? HCl? i have these and several
other items at the ready. thank you for the insight.
the only reason i could think of that (presuming they do contain precious metals, of course) these are not sent to you would be that they are treated
as bio-hazardous waste due to their specific usage.
ok thank you for the thought on these but i think i found the answer...too bad too. nothing to get excited about.......dammit!
<a href="http://blog.makezine.com/2012/03/20/the-secret-life-of-disposable-cautery-pens/">this article</a> had the answer.
