The new Lisa sterilizer from W&H

Lisa sterilizer: Designed for the high demands in efficiency, safety and quality

Working quickly, efficiently and providing the best hygiene standards in the dental practice is the focus of W&H with the latest product developments in the field of sterilization. Demanding patients, more stringent legal conditions and the requirement for continuous improvement in the economic efficiency of the dental practice means greater challenges for dentists. With the newly developed Lisa sterilizer, W&H offers an innovative device with high sterilization efficiency. In close cooperation with European Dentists, essential market needs were collected and transferred into product specification. Equipped with modern functionalities the new type B sterilizer from W&H offers the best possible solution for efficient and secure working processes. W&H Product Manager Alejandro Ramírez is convinced that the new device is setting a new benchmark in the dental market. In the following interview he explains how the dental practice benefits from an optimized workflow:

Mr. Ramírez, what significance does the new Lisa have in the hygiene process of dental practices?

Ramírez: The new Lisa sterilizer is equipped with the latest technologies and offers a high sterilization efficiency to modern dental practices. The focus of the new Lisa is the optimization of working processes where it can be easily integrated into existing hygiene protocols and supports compliance with legal requirements.

What customer needs were the main focus during the product development phase?

Ramírez: The main topics during the development were speed, ease of use, comprehensive traceability and ergonomics. All of these aspects directly linked with efficiency and of course with customer experience. Speed is a purely engineering topic to be worked out in-house but ease of use and ergonomics were the topics where customer feedback was extremely important and valuable. Different questionnaires were submitted during the field test, which provided us with comprehensive customer feedback about how the new unit was perceived and what features still needed improvement prior to the product launch.

To what extent were Customers integrated into the product development process?

Ramírez: This is an important question. As you may know, even if the general hygienic and asepsis rules are somehow common worldwide, the way the customers are working with the products differs from country to country. So customer needs are also slightly different. This may be due to local regulations, to cultural specifics or the market environment in general. For those reasons we decided to carry out the largest ever field test by W&H Sterilization. Our main objective was to ensure coverage of a wide spectrum of daily use. Reliability is key: we’ve had units running in field test sites for more than 18 months, validating and ensuring the reliability of the unit to the customer prior to its market launch. We tested more than forty Lisa sterilizers in eleven different European countries.

What technological highlights characterize the new Lisa in particular?

Ramírez: The efficiency and speed of the cycle by the patented Eco Dry technology is probably one the most important technological features to highlight. The new Eco Dry plus is the result of three years of internal engineering work combined with partnerships between W&H and two European universities, looking for the highest sterilization efficiency in terms of speed, energy, water consumption and drying quality. The new connectivity and user interface opens a new world of possibilities by further improving the customer experience and workflow. In addition, the components modelling and software-simulation work completed prior to the field test phase generated tremendous confidence for us, which was reflected in the durability and reliability experienced in the market testing.

Mr. Ramírez, you mentioned the patented Eco Dry technology. What benefits does this technology offer to the Customer?

Ramírez: The main benefit is time saving. Around 30% time saving for an average load compared to a conventional type B cycle. Thanks to the Eco Dry technology the customer will experience an increase in the service life of their instruments as well as a reduction in the energy consumption of the sterilizer. Let me quickly explain how it works:
The Eco Dry technology is a patented algorithm which allows Lisa to calculate the drying time according to the mass of the load to process. We understand that to dry 4 kg of instruments, the energy and time needed is greater than for drying 2 kg. While conventional sterilizers have a fixed drying time for each sterilization cycle, Lisa understands how much load is being sterilized and adapts the drying time to the load mass automatically. This feature allows Lisa to offer one of the fastest - if not the fastest - type B sterilization cycle for an average load (2kg)

So the benefits of the Eco Dry technology are not only time savings and the optimization of energy consumption but also the increase in the working life of instruments. As the instruments are less exposed to high temperatures during the shortened drying phase, their lifespan will be prolonged. If we take a look at the energy consumption during the drying time of the new Lisa it will be lower, with less time where the heater and other components are powered, which in turn means less electricity consumed.

This allows midsize dental clinics to reduce their investment needed in traceability by only buying one label printer. This connectivity also allows Lisa to remotely save the cycle reports to a server, which offers two advantages to the customers: firstly, the possibility to have cycle history backed up on a separated server and secondly, the digital storage of the cycle reports on their own clinic management system.

Many thanks for this interview.