Modular Design

As a person gets older, over time that person is subject to different diseases that can scar the Lumen Wall (intestine wall). Any scarring of the Lumen Wall leads to Autodigestion ( enzymes escape the inside of the intestine and start digesting neighboring organs), which is undesired (can lead to organ inflammation and death if left untreated).Currently Dr. Geert Schmid-Schoenbein, my project sponsor, is conducting research on this topic at UCSD. His team found that if a scarred Lumen Wall is suctioned, and then followed by a Hydrogel Injection, this offers potential in healing any scarred Lumen Wall areas.

High Priority:

Biomedical Device should:

1)Include an suctioning mechanism and facilitate a hydrogel injection

3) Not cause any damage to the patient's body.

4) Offer endoscopic compatibility

Secondary Priority:

Biomedical Device should:

1) Be as compact as possible

2) Be simple as possible and offer ease of assembly

3) Include camera spacing

Justification of final design choice:

The Initial Design was assumed to be handheld; this is not the case; the required device must offer endoscopic port compatibility. The idea was scrapped after meeting with Dr. Schimid-Schoenbein, but main concept ideas were carried over to the Intermediate Design. It was then assumed the Intermediate Design would be the final prototype, but there were certain issues encountered along the design process. One of these issues was that fact tolerancing problems would arise as a result of the complexity of the assembly. For example, the magnets order did not offer any type of tolerancing accuracy based on their dimensions, which could result in non-precise injection by the Intermediate Design. Also, the complexity of this assembly would increase the overall cost of the final product. This is not desirable as it will lead to a more costly medical procedure. Lastly, having a 6-part assembly results in a high probability of failure based on this Intermediate design. To accommodate these issues, the Intermediate Design was further simplified. This resulted in the Final Design under consideration, which consists of a three-part assembly, which includes magnets as the third main component. This simplification of the assembly reduces failure probability, and results in a cheaper biomedical device based on manufacturing cost. Although the Final Design offers these improvements, it lacks a design intent idea though at an early stage of the design process. The medical procedure under consideration is time extensive as the intestine is a long organ, which means that the organ aspirating chamber in contact with the intestine can easily get clogged with tissue and blood. I initially decided to make the aspirator mechanism a multi part mechanism. This will allow for the aspiration main chamber that is in direct contact with the Lumen Wall to be replaced if deemed necessary.

Initial Design

The figures above displayed different views of the Initial Hydrogel Injector Design

After meeting with the Dr. Geert Schmid-Schoenbein for a couple weeks the Initial design evolved into the Intermediate Design. The Initial Design is a handheld Biomedical Device, but the Sponsor recommends Endoscopic Port Biomedical Device!. Hence the Initial Design was scrapped and the main ideas were carry over to the Intermediate Design.

Intermediate Design:

The figures above show different orientations of the Intermediate Hydrogel Injector Design

The Intermediate Design model consists of a 6 part assembly. This assembly contains a syringe place holder, and an organ aspirator mechanism. The design under consideration offers Endoscopic Port compatibility. The main components of the assembly are as follows: Vacuum Main Chamber (1), Syringe Top Case (2), Syringe Bottom Case (3), Tubbing(3mmOD) (4), Magnets (5) & Aspirator Chamber (6).

Final Design:

The Final Design model consists of a 3 part assembly. This design contains a syringe place holder, and an organ suction(aspirator) mechanism. This device also offers Endoscopic Port compatibility. The Final Design is simplification of the Intermediate Design, which offers a greater resistance to failure and a cheaper Biomedical Device. The main components of this assembly are as follows: Bottom Case with Aspirator Mechanism (1), Top Case (2) and Magnets (3).

The figure above displays a side view of Final Hydrogel Injector Design, with corresponding part numbers

The figure above displays a Cross Section and Isometric views of the Final Hydrogel Injector Design

Part (1): Bottom Case with Aspirator Mechanism

The figures above show different views of the Bottom Case with Aspirator Mechanism

Functional Requirements:

The purpose of the Bottom Case with the Aspirator part of the assembly is to case the syringe into place. This part also contains an Organ Aspiration Chamber. The Organ Aspirator Chamber under consideration should be able to suction the scarred (degraded) area of an organ in order to enable an injection site. The organ Aspirator should not induce any type of damage along a patient's intestine or neighboring organs. Since the organ Aspirator is in direct contact with the organ, the material selected for this part should offer human compatibility, which essentially means that it should be non-toxic material, or non-reactive with the human body. This part was created to satisfy the imposed requirements. This Final Design part is a direct result of receiving constructive feedback throughout these past months provided by the sponsor, Dr. Geert.

Part (2): Top Case

The figures above displayed different views of the Top Case

Functional Requirements:

The main function of the Top Case is to hold the syringe into place, to facilitate the hydrogel injection into the designated region. This part under consideration allows the ability of placing the syringe into position in a fast manner, by using a Magnet Closing Mechanism.

Veroclear is used in order to 3D print the Top Case (1) & Bottom Case with Aspirator (2)

● Veroclear is human compatible material, which means it's non toxic to the human body.

● Veroclear material properties are excellent for this application.

Pump Gun with Tube set

● The purpose of this Pump gun with the Tube Sets is to create a vacuum pump mechanism, which will allow for the Lumen Wall Suction/Aspiration.

● These items are also used in order to clear any support material from inside the Aspirator/Suction Cavity.

Amazon Magnets

● Magnets are used in order to facilitate the closing mechanism, which allows for ease of syringe replacement.