Why is the wall part of the building services in an operating theatre?

An operating theatre is not a room with stricter requirements. It is an environment where the wall stops being a divider and becomes a technical component: it closes the volume, carries medical gases and power inside itself, supports pendants and head units, and has to open when something needs checking.

That changes the order of the decisions. In an office the partition is chosen once the layout is settled; in an operating theatre the layout and the services are decided together with the wall, because the wall is what contains them.

What makes a surface genuinely cleanable?

Not the material on its own: continuity. A washable surface broken by an open joint is a surface disinfection does not reach everywhere, and the point it misses is exactly where soil settles.

Three things therefore matter together in a system for medical environments:

  • continuous surfaces, with no gaps where material can lodge;
  • panel-to-panel meetings resolved flush, not with a rebate that invites dirt;
  • junctions with floor and ceiling designed to be cleaned, not only to close the volume.

SALUS is the healthcare division's system for these environments: operating theatres, intensive care units, patient rooms, corridors, communal areas and X-Ray rooms. It is described on the ADAM Health division page.

Where do medical gases and power run?

Inside the wall profile. It is the difference you pay for once and recover for the life of the building: in a traditional wall the services sit in the masonry, so every change means cutting a chase and making it good again, with dust and a department out of use.

When the route is inside the profile, the services are reachable from the start and stay reachable afterwards. That is not a convenience for the site: it is what makes routine maintenance possible without closing the theatre.

What happens when maintenance is due?

The panel that is needed comes off, the work is done, the panel goes back. The neighbouring panels stay where they are, the floor is untouched, and the room returns to service without the cycle of demolition, making good and cleaning again that masonry work brings with it.

It is also why a department can change use without being rebuilt: the wall moves, the panels are reused, and what is almost never recovered — the chases cut into the screed when the wall first went up — was never cut at all in a modular system.

What is machined in-house?

6060 T6 aluminium and wooden panels are machined at the Bernate Ticino plant. Having the machining in-house matters most on healthcare projects, where dimensions are rarely standard and a change during the works cannot turn into a wait of several weeks.

The production cycle is described on the Manufacturing page. To discuss a department or a single theatre, write to us from the Contact page.