With 250 million endoscopies done worldwide annually, endoscopes are a critical component of
today’s medical care, yet, they are also the leading cause of infection by medical device. To
prevent contamination, hospitals require an intense reprocessing procedure including washing,
disinfection, and sterilization stages before an endoscope can be reused. Though crucial, this
harsh cleaning process makes the endoscopes susceptible to corrosion, discoloration, pitting,
and microcracking. Imperfections in the devices create further risk of infection and necessitate
costly repairs or replacements. To minimize wear damage, Karl Storz Imaging, a leader in
endoscope production, seeks to improve the development of their devices’ materials through
novel testing. Our approach is to create an innovative test system that simulates an operational
lifetime of wear by repeatedly exposing endoscope materials to an automated version of the
cleaning process executed at hospitals. Through this accelerated aging, engineers can quickly
gain insight into the full performance of their designs with minimal labor needed.