Positioning the operating room table for intubation and line placement for ourselves, and optimizing operating conditions for the surgeon is a seemingly minor yet extremely important part of the anesthesiologist’s job. An OR table controller with a broken clip can lead to a much bigger headache than one might think, causing the controller to fall to the floor constantly and add frequent 15 second delays every time the table needs an adjustment.

Some of our OR tables have chronically broken clips, no doubt by planned obsolescence, to encourage purchasing a constant stream of $50 replacement clips from the manufacturer. Exhibit A:

Due to the slow response time of the powers that be that should be replacing these clips, I took it upon myself to design and 3D print a replacement clip, that was both cheaper and stronger. Here is the 3D printed model that I came up with:

I made the clip much thicker than the OEM product to hopefully reduce the incidence of breakage. I printed the model on a Bambu X1C in PAHT-CF filament (Bambu Labs’ blend of carbon fiber reinforced Nylon) at 0.3 mm layer height with 60% gyroid infill and 4 layer shells. Here is the final version printed:

Anecdotally, the clip feels robust and was able to support my weight when stepped on. Here is the clip in place:

Now that I have an effective model that can be printed in about 45 min, we no longer have to worry about the OR table controllers going for months falling on the floor constantly due to the lack of a clip. Will this new clip tolerate being crashed into by a 1000 lb. ICU bed? Only time will tell.