Glaucoma Gals

 This week was more of a mellow week for me because of other classes picking up, and I put in a lot of work the last few weeks so I had hours to spare.  I worked in the lab for a little and started manufacturing the three tube resistor design with epoxy/unicone. During capstone, we tried to find more parts to help with shakedowns, such as a needle that would fit our tiny tubing. We could not find one the right size in the lab, so I found one to order online. I worked on my ethics presentation and peer reviewed Kierstin's presentation.  I am still taking measurements for the dissolving lab incase we change our minds, but at this point I do not think we need that design component anymore.  This is the epoxy boat and plug that I did. There was not supposed to be a hole in the white piece, so I re-epoxied it.  Here is the proof of the peer eval: 

  In Class:  Solidworks:  Valve component with holes  Need to make a mold for silicone to be poured into (Shown Below)  Lab:  Lab work with Team:  The orange connector is too small for the tubing, so I drummled Fady’s printed part down. It seems too small to drill through though, so Alex ordered some bigger needle connectors.  Found connectors that with some silicone wrapped around will allow us to hook up a pressure sensor to the shakedown systems to measure the pressure at the time of the leak.  Brinkley and I also tested the resistance that a scalpel incision would have, but it dripped differently depending on the position of the tube and the cut, which means it would not be a reliable resistance for our shakedowns. I think that putting silicone resistors would work better for future testing.  I also cleaned out half a resistor to create a resistance-free air pocket that I can drill into and put in tubes. It needed to be reepoxied bec...

 This week consisted of testing pressure sensors connected to our lab setup to make sure they work. I worked on 3D printing parts for our team since the 3D printing lab does not want to print the parts in the size we want. The first few prints failed completely since they were too small. After some research and watching how to design and 3D print parts and after some testing I was able to print the parts we needed with the adjusted design and the adjusted settings. The parts were dropped off in the lab on Tuesday for Kierstin to drill and test. Unfortunately, the parts were missing after a few hours and I ended up working on printing new parts and removing supports again. The parts are really small and fragile and were not able to get the supports off easily but with a little bit of sanding and working around it hopefully, these parts work in our lab. This layout was not successful since the supports were too small to take off without breaking the stem. After switching the orientat...

 This week was a lot of testing and research. I am still working on the dissolving component and figure out that data, which will make more sense with time hopefully. When we were in the capstone block, we did a couple of shakedowns, we did a brief resistor in parallel test that worked great, Fady set up the sensors, and we modified parts we already had to make them work for shakedowns.  The research I did this week was about materials. I researched silicone sheets, silicone molding, glue, and sutures. For each category I found biocompatible and regular options. The regular options are much cheaper and easier to get.  Here are the links to the products I found:  Research Mold and Curing Silicone:  Biocompatible: https://www.elkem.com/silicones/offer/healthcare/medical-grade/liquid-silicone-rubber/ I would suggest soft or mid durometer because it would be less preventative of the tube expanding. Less resistance. Another option is:  https://products-silicones...