Semester 2- Week 3 Kierstin

 

SOLIDWORKS: 

Worked in Solidworks on creating the body shape and size. 

This shape and size is based on the Ahmed valve reference to ensure that it will be able to be implanted in the eye. 

I had to fix a few of the dimensions and the shape again to get the rounded corners and a more rounded front. The loft for some reason was making the sides bulge out, so I had to redraw and recreate the loft into the shape I wanted. 

It took a long time to figure out how to make a plane at 45 degrees for the angled tubes. I wanted to make sure the planes on both sides were equal so the part would be symmetrical and so I could dimension the drawings correctly. 

I applied the silicone material and noticed the connection point between the tubing was a little messed up. This would create leakage and would alter the fluid flow in the valve. 

I had to redraw the sketches and make sure their origins were lined up. It looks like this now that it is fixed. All the tubes have extruded cuts through them so fluid will be able to flow. 

I then dimensioned the drawing, which took a long time to go back and specify dimensions in sketches where I had just dimensioned the shape and not the location. I also had to decide which ones I thought needed to be included, because if all the dimensions were included the drawing was kinda covered up. 

After working on the dimensioning page for an hour I realized I didn't include the sutures or resistances in my drawings. 

I drew in 2 of the sutures and then Solidworks crashed and I had to redraw the sutures, so it took a bit longer than I expected. It took me a while to figure out I could sketch on the extruded ends of the tube, but once I figured that out I was able to draw and extrude the resistors and place them where I wanted pretty easily. I also changed the color of the silicone so they would be visible in the drawings and made sure the material was the same silicone. 

I then made a second sheet of drawings with a section view so I could show and dimension the three resistances. I had never drawn in a sectional view, so this took some time to find and figure out how to use it.

This is the second page that shows the resistors in sections B-B, and you can also see their lengths. . 

Company Budget: 

Lab work: 

In the lab, I tested drilling through thin epoxy on the silicone Brinkley used to test the silicone spray. I found that it was too thin to drill through (pictures 1-2) but when I used a needle to poke it, it made a good-sized hole (pictures 3-4). The needle also poked through the side when I tried to make the needed hole (picture 5). I then tested thinning the silicone with the scalpel, because I think we will need to make thicker valves and then cut them thinner once the holes for the tubes are already poked/ drilled (picture 6). I tried heating up the needle over a flame to see if it would cut through the silicone cleaner, but it did not get nearly hot enough to melt through the silicone. 

 Our team did the boiling water test to stretch the tubing, but it did not work. (picture 7) It made a burning smell, and even when we pushed water through it or created internal pressure, the walls did not thin. We also tried pushing water through on the candle test, and that did not work either. I think our best bet is to shave the edges with the scalpel. Picture 8 is the silicone valves from the 3D-printed molds. They came out clean and we made 2 prototypes. Picture 9 is the one that is the correct size, but in thinning the walls with the scalpel, I made a puncture so it was ruined. Picture 10 shows that it was too thick and needed to be thinned. 

Picture 11 shows a test of super glue to see if it would bond the epoxy to the tubing. It didn’t work, so we used the epoxy in picture 12. Picture 13 shows the different-sized molds that we were testing with. We had to let the epoxy dry, so we don’t know if it sealed well yet. Brinkley and I also looked at the pressure sensors but didn’t know what software we were supposed to hear, and we haven’t gotten a response back from Fady about it.