Learn how the design in medical devices is evolving for more in-home use and how this affects noise and thermal insulation. Topics explored will include the following:

 

• How medical devices are becoming smarter, smaller, and more portable to meet patient and provider needs.
• Why miniaturization and smart features could make products louder and even more dangerous for the patient without the right acoustic mitigation strategy.
• Ways acoustic foam and custom molded foam solutions can help reduce noise, vibration, and thermal energy for patient comfort and usability. 

The growing demand for at-home, personal medical devices is driving clear shifts in how these products are designed. Providers are prescribing these devices for patients to avoid lengthier hospital stays while ensuring real-time monitoring. This supports greater patient independence, helps prevent readmissions, and encourages long-term therapy compliance.

 

To meet these expectations, manufacturers are miniaturizing devices, making them more lightweight, and integrating sensors and other smart components for better functionality. But these shifts often introduce new acoustic, vibration, and thermal challenges within increasingly compact and reworked designs. And these challenges will impact user adoption and comfort, too.

 

Having worked with many OEMs to address excess noise, vibration, and heat, we’ll explore how acoustic foam solutions can help create quieter, more comfortable devices that better support the patient experience and the therapy’s effectiveness.

 

How Do Evolving Design Trends Impact Noise Levels?

Any medical device with internal fans, motors, or airflow paths will generate some level of noise from mechanical operation and turbulent airflow. A cover helps block some of the noise from escaping, but it’s usually not enough. When you add miniaturization, portability, and heat-generating smart components to the design planning, this could significantly increase the noise. 

 

Acoustic Problems for Miniaturization and Portability

As medical devices become smaller and more portable, acoustic challenges are often amplified. Miniaturization introduces several design constraints that can negatively impact sound and vibration absorption:

 

• The reduced internal air volume allows noise generated from internal components to build up more quickly and increase overall sound pressure. 
• Thinner, lightweight housings are more susceptible to vibration and structural resonance.
• Tighter component spacing can allow mechanical vibration and airborne noise to couple and increase noise transmission within the device. 

 

An important thing to keep in mind is that these devices are often used at night for sleep. Without a targeted acoustic mitigation strategy, these factors can unintentionally increase perceived loudness, especially in home and nighttime environments. Excessive noise can disrupt patient comfort and sleep and reflect poorly on the overall engineering and materials used.

 

These same miniaturization and portability constraints can also lead to greater heat concentration and restricted airflow, creating thermal challenges for engineers, too. Excessive heat is dangerous for patient safety and can also impact the device’s longevity. 

 

Acoustic Problems Associated with Smart Components

Smart medical devices frequently incorporate sensors, adaptive controls, variable-speed motors, and onboard processing to personalize therapy in real time and enable real-time monitoring. While most sensors or processing components will be quiet, smart functionality creates some acoustic challenges for the patient: 

 

• Motors that speed up and slow down to accommodate changing operating conditions can generate shifting tonal frequencies. The human brain is wired to notice changes in sound rather than a steady noise, increasing the likelihood of patient anxiety and disruption.
• Additional electronics from smart technologies require cooling fans that add continuous broadband noise, which can easily escape from the structural chassis. This could make it harder for the patient to sleep or concentrate.

 

Together, these factors can make devices sound unpredictable, even when measured sound levels remain within specification. Thermal management can also become more complex as the higher power densities from the smart components will increase heat generation. 

 

Acoustic Foam Solutions for Energy Management Challenges in Medical Devices

 

At Polymer Technologies, Inc. we have collaborated with medical device manufacturers at various stages of the design process to reduce noise and improve the assembly process. Our custom foam materials are highly effective at absorbing and blocking noise while potentially reducing assembly time and cost. We offer 2D die-cut and 3D molded foam options depending on the needs of the manufacturer. 

 

POLYDAMP® Acoustic Foams

Our POLYDAMP® products feature 2D die-cut foams made from polyurethane, melamine, and hydrophobic melamine. They provide a versatile solution for managing noise and vibration in compact medical devices. Applied to flat or lightly contoured surfaces, these materials help control enclosure-borne noise to improve patient comfort and performance. Other advantages include: 

• Flexible shapes and sizes available for miniaturized and portable designs
• Effective absorption of mid- to high-frequency noise
• Panel damping for reduced vibration and resonance
• Thermal stability and flame resistance to prevent overheating and fire
• Hydrophobic foam options to resist moisture in humid airflow environments

Our engineers will discuss your project with you to determine if a 2D-cut solution makes the most sense for your device. In some cases, especially for devices with complex internal geometries and significantly tight spaces, a 3D custom molded foam solution may offer additional advantages. 

 

POLYFORM® Custom Molded Foams

Our custom molded foam solutions provide even more flexibility for complex applications. As devices become smaller and smarter, molded foam can be shaped to fit the exact specifications of the internal design of the product for effective sound absorption, thermal resistance, and structural support. Custom molded foam helps manufacturers think inside the box in new ways:

 

• Molded foam parts are multi-functional and eliminate the need for fasteners, screws, and additional parts, which help reduce assembly time and costs. 
• They can stop the acoustic line of sight within devices while maintaining or incorporating air pathways for intake and exhaust plenums, ensuring patient comfort and safety.
• Our engineers will identify and test the right custom materials for effective sound, vibration, and thermal management for a manufacturer’s specifications. 

 

Our collaborative approach and medical device expertise help solve the challenges of designing smaller, portable home-use devices with real-time monitoring. While the best results often happen when we work with your team at the inception stage, we often help manufacturers resolve issues in their current design. 

 

Check out this real world example where we helped a manufacturer reduce the noise in their oxygen concentrator and meet all regulatory requirements by replacing standard die-cut foam materials with a custom molded foam solution.

 

Meeting Today’s Medical Device Demands with Polymer

 

As therapies increasingly move into the home and devices are designed to fit patients’ lifestyles, Polymer can help you address the complex challenges that come with this transition. We have decades of experience working with medical device manufacturers on their unique products.

Whether you need a 2D die-cut acoustic foam to mitigate noise or a custom molded foam solution for your complex energy management requirements, we will help get your product ready for market. Contact us today to begin the conversation.