Designing a model for reliability improvement with FTA and FMEA techniques on medical gas outlet

In this case study of medical equipment industry, a reliability improvement cycle was conducted about medical gas outlet. Outlet connects four main hospital gases including oxygen, vacuum, air and nitroxide from hospital gas lines to certain equipment such as flowmeter, suction and other medical equipment by adaptor. Outlet product was chosen because it is a necessary and sensitive product in a hospital, and a small mistake during its production and installation can endanger a patient's life. In this study, reliability allocation was initially carried out for outlet parts. Two valves and spring were identified as important parts by means of tools such as functional flow block diagram and N*N that recognised system parts and their relationships. Then, fault tree analysis (FTA), failure modes and effective analysis (FMEA) were performed. System reliability was calculated via Bayesian method. Finally, improvement and redesigning were performed for system. In this study, a new model was proposed for reliability improvement of the products. In addition, reliability of medical gas outlet was increased.