156B Week 2

• • • Basic Idea: Flood a slide with blood and then spin at a certain speed for a certain amount of time, which depends on red cell parameters

    • Comparison of the wedging method with the spinning method

      • A blood smear obtained from the wedging method is shown on the right

      • Blood smears obtained from the spinning method are similar to Part E

    • Reference of figures: “Erythrocyte Morphology and Centrifugal ‘Spinner’ Blood Film Preparation” by James W. Bacus. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/22.7.506

Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.

• • Draw the CAD for the 3 components: Ruiqi, Lumei

  • Fabricate prototype for the 3 components: Yi, Yuhui, Guanhao

  • Purchase required electronic components (motor, conveyor belt system/linear actuator): Lumei

Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

• • Below are the comments we got from sponsor on 1/13, in person.

  • Since the widely used method (traditional wedging method) uses a sharp edge rather than a round edge, is there any reason for that?

    • Blood smears made with a round edge might fail to provide a feathered edge. Detailed information can be found here (http://www.eclinpath.com/hematology/hemogram-basics/blood-smear-examination/ ).

  • Design requirements

    • Make sure that the following variables can be altered: speed, pressure, contact surface, pausing

      • Pausing: Make sure that the machine can pause for about 1 second so that a drop of blood can make contact with a straw

  • Intellectual Property (IP) Issues ---research

  • Spinning method

    • There are no commercial products based on spinning, although there was one before

    • A problem of the spinning method: Blood smears produced with this method are uniform throughout the slide. Variation over a blood smear can let the analyzer to find a optimal spot to obtain data.

  • Roller Method (by straw)

    • Easier for disposal compared with the traditional method. For the traditional method, the spreader needs to be washed every time and needs to be replaced once a month.

    • Glass is  more expensive, compared with straw

    • Do research on materials

  • Conveyor belt vs. Linear Actuator

    • Link for linear Actuator: https://www.servocity.com/linear-actuator-kit-7-4-stroke-6-0-sec

Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments  (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)

• • Test the spin method: place a drop of blood on one side of the slide (rather than at the center of a slide) and then spin. Ask Ian or Greg for available equipments. Note that the spinning method here is different from the previous mentioned one.

    • We did research online and found a paper on spin method (see Accomplishments from Previous week)

  • The biggest advantage of vibration method, spin method and air knife method: Do not need to worry about disposal. Relatively, the straw method has more mechanism involved.

  • For the progress report, it is required to put names for individual analysis

Risks and Areas of Concern

• • Failure of prototype components

  • Incompatibility between electronic and mechanical components

Resources or Information Required but not Available

• • None

Schedule

• • Describe upcoming milestone

  • Update Gantt chart.

Budget (list amount spent and amount remaining)

• • 3 kinds of Tape for testing blood smearing

    • Packing Tape ($1.99)

    • Duct Tape ($2.99)

    • Masking Tape ($6.99)

  • a vial of 7-micron polystyrene bead control material,  ($80.00)

Progress on Report and Webpage

• • We have started with the final report.

  • We will upload our CAD files to webpage by the end of this week.