Team 14 - GOWN ‐ Made in the USA (Hansae)

The goal for this project was to model a manufacturing process of disposable isolation gowns that would be economically viable in the United States. To start, we began researching what the current manufacturing process looked like and what steps were required in order to produce the finished product. From our research, it was clear that the amount of manual labor required in the traditional process was not feasible to duplicate in the United States. With that knowledge, we went into a period of ideation where we brainstormed alternative methods to reduce the need for manual labor by increasing automation in the process. We began looking into current existing technologies that could be used to replace some of the traditional mechanisms, such as automated spreading and cutting systems. We developed a list of various machines that could be used in the process. We investigated the different price points and production capabilities to determine which machines would best meet our output requirements.

Looking even further into details of the process, we learned that the sewing step specifically required the most time and manual labor. With that information, our team began another round of ideation focusing solely on potential sewing alternatives. From our ideation followed by research, we learned about the possibilities of ultrasonic welding.

Ultrasonic welding was an exciting and promising alternative to sewing. In order to utilize the benefits of welding in the gown manufacturing process the design and construction of the gown needed to change. At this point the team conducted a third ideation round focusing specifically on the gown design and method of construction. From this phase, two different types of gown designs were identified and developed into prototypes, a design with two separate components and a design with a singular component. These prototypes were compared by closely analyzing their performance in the construction step of the process. We learned from our analysis that the two piece design actually resulted in more adhesion steps than the traditional sewing, even with the use of the welding machine. Looking at the one piece cut design, we were able to create a method to construct the gown that minimized the adhesion steps and simplified the process overall, by utilizing a specialized method of welding. It is the main concept of this prototype that our group intends to use to finalize the project.

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