Hi, Kim:
My name is Delos. I thought about droping my last name so everyone would think I was cool . . .you know, like Iman, Chantal, Sting and Kim. Decided against it though, it's hard enough having to explain about 'Delos,' imagine what I would go through if I had to explain why I did not have a last name!!
You asked about how pacemakers are made. I am really not sure how to answer
that question, but I will try. My company is located in Sylmar, CA (you may
want to try to find that on a *good* map of CA
Special machines make the pacemaker cans and headers (ask Danielle what those
are) for the people in the clean room to assemble. Most of the assembly work
is done by hand, but some of the very difficult welding and soldering and
other assembly is assisted by computer. Each person in the clean room has a
special job and the pacemaker is passed from person to person.
Once the device is completely finished it is placed in a special tesing
machine to make sure that it is working properly. It is visually inspected
and the log books (log books are the record of the assembly) are reviewed. If
every thing is O.K., the pacemaker is put in a special sealed container and
sterilized using a gas called ethelene oxide. Two days after it comes out of
sterility it is placed in its final boxes (two or three of them) and sent to
wait to be used. Do you know that every step of the manufacturing process is
recorded in the log books? Why do you think they would have to do that? Why
do you think we use a gas instead of heat to sterilize the pacemaker?
Sorry to be so boring with the description. There is nothing very exciting
about manufacturing a pacemaker - except the welding (they use laser beams).
I hope you will keep writing to me. I enjoy watching your eyes get droopy
when you read the answers to the questions.
Your
Delos Johnson
Sleepy D
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