The Radiant Heat Warmer (RHW) 3000 series from Zeal Medical Pvt. Ltd. of Mumbai provides an example of Indian ingenuity in cutting costs while preserving quality. Designed for the Indian marketplace, the open-bed radiant heat warmer for infants is 50% less expensive than other competing products in the market, according to the manufacturer.
According to an article in European Medical Device magazine, much of the unit’s costs savings stem from the manufacturer’s attention to design for manufacturing and assembly. “The tubing cross sections are all standardized sizes, Construction methods also are very standardised.
The jurors alsoo praised the clean form language of the unit’s design. “The design language is very consistent across all aspects: the hardware, the software, the design detail,” Rutter says. “There’s a nice rhythm and harmony when you look at it.” By contrast, many neonatal heating units look complicated. “Consider the neonatal intensive care units or any of the environments where you find these heating beds. When you think of it from the standpoint of the patient’s parents, all of that complication makes everyone a little bit nervous,” Rutter explains. “So we just thought it was nice that this unit could convey a kind of peaceful image back to the family.”
One of the principal innovations of the device is that it offers a unique reflector design that ensures uniform heating to the infant without excessively heating the surrounding environment. Zeal Medical uses a dual parabola radiant heater that evenly distributes warmth across the entire cradle while redirecting heat away from the periphery of the unit.
