North American NEMA Hospital-Grade mains plugs

North American Hospital Grade

As a global power cord specialist, Morvan Trading stock over 75,000 moulded North American NEMA power cords for standard use. However, the USA and Canada require special ‘green dot’ hospital grade plugs, of which we also hold a couple of thousand medical plugs ready for next working delivery.

These are a requirement in hospitals for any medical equipment, and also in many other healthcare settings e.g. EMT ambulances, dental practices, private physicians, physiotherapists, psychotherapists, pharmacists, midwives, etc. Generally equipment for pure admin or office purposes is exempted, but anything for use near or on a patient must be medically approved.

We can also ship to USA, Canada, and Mexico or the American region by express service if required.

Exporting any kind of medical or hospital equipment to North America? Our knowledgeable technical team will be happy to help with specifying and selecting the correct hospital power cord, and can also forward all relevant drawings, specifications and approval certificates on request. Our stock moulded hospitale grade use the Longwell LP-20A.

The rewireable options, whilst not factory sealed, are transparent and marked with the required green dot, so still fully aproved. These are an ideal solution for small quantities, difficult specifications, or fast turnarounds.

Contact us now for pricing on stock or custom-made items, and remember we can hold customer stock on call-off at Morvan of both standard and special items in order to keep lead times short and prices low.

Contact our friendly technical team for more information call us on 01264 353489 or click here to contact us

North America or more precisely the USA and Canada have electrical standards for clinical use: essentially a provision for Hospital grade power cables for use on critical medical equipment. As well as meeting the required electrical and medical standards, the plugs must also be easily recognised as hospital grade.

They are also used throughout the region in countries that have 100V – 127V mains voltage. This includes Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and several South American countries. This varies widely by state, region, and even hospital.

Japan has a similar mains power system, plus its own hospital grade set of standards (also with green dot), but these are not interchangeable due to different approvals and subtle design differences.

The plugs can be identified by a green dot on the plug, and may also have ‘Hospital Grade’ or ‘Hosp. Grade’ marked on them. A hospital-grade or green dot plug makes the rest of the power cable assembly hospital-grade. Generally, hospital-grade plugs are less likely to cause power loss to critical equipment from poor contact, damage, or accidental disconnection.

Contact our friendly technical team for more information call us on 01264 353489 or click here to contact us

The relevant standards are ANSI / UL498 and UL 60601 for the USA. It is CSA CAN C22.2 No. 21 and CSA CAN C22.2 No 42 for Canada, which are in addition to the normal UL817 and Canadian standards. As with our standard North American products, approval is by Underwriters Laboratories in the US and the Canadian Standards Association in Canada. There is no medical standard in Mexico and other countries that use the North American type plug, but hospital-grade leads may be specified and used.

Hospital-grade sockets are made to stricter manufacturing tolerances, to prevent accidental disconnection. The plugs have double-insulated inserts and solid pins (not folded metal) which are usually nickel plated, for more reliability, especially for the ground connection. There must be a strain relief for the plug, to stop its cable from being forcibly pulled out, which makes the plugs bigger.

Generally, the plugs are also built for increased strength, durability and reliability, even after a high number of plugging-in and unplugging cycles. This generally makes them larger overall. Another measure is resistance to corrosion and damage from the liquids and chemicals that may be encountered in the healthcare environment.

Whilst not a requirement, the plugs are sometimes made from a clear or slightly blue tinted transparent material in order to check the internal wiring is correct; another popular colour is solid non-transparent grey, in addition to the more mainstream solid black colour.

Contact our friendly technical team for more information call us on 01264 353489 or click here to contact us

Morvan Trading stocks NEMA 5-15P type medical cords, and the other types in the standard can be manufactured on request: NEMA 6-15P, 5-20P, 6-20P. Federal Specification (Fed Spec) to W-C-596 may also be possible.

Approval can be by any of the NRTLS (Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories). Currently our moulded hospital grade are approved by UL (Underwriters Laboratories) on plug, cable, and connector, plus CSA (Canadian Standards Association) on the cable. We hold all the standards documentation and approvals certificates on file, ready for inspection, testing, and approval.

Contact our friendly technical team for more information call us on 01264 353489 or click here to contact us

Get in touch now for a swift, competitive quotation, call us on 01264 353489 or click here to contact us