A major problem with the heart is when a person’s
valves cease to function properly due to disease or fatigue. This prevents the blood from flowing through
the heart correctly. The most common
reasons for a heart valve replacement are regurgitation, which is when the
heart valve does not close properly and allows blood to leak backwards. The reason for a heart valve replacement is
stenosis, which is when a valve does not open fully and inhibits blood flow. There are two types of replacement valves:
mechanical and tissue.
The goal is to design and produce a replica of a working
artificial heart valve. Designing, modeling and printing the final product will
provide many challenges such as researching, replicating and fabricating a top
level design on computers and on a 3-D printer. It will be a ball and holder
model where the pressure of the blood flow will move the ball up when the
pressure is high allowing for blood to flow. When the pressure decreases again
the ball will fall down and not allow any blood to pass in the opposite
direction. Below is an image of the design our artificial valve is modeled after.
 |
| "Prosthetic Heart Valves ." Medscape. N.p., 28 Jan. 2013. Web. 01 May 2013. <http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/780702-overview>. |
Deliverables:
At the end of this quarter, there will be a 3D CREO design
of the heart valve, the 3D printout of the heart valve. A testing device will be created and
implemented to see how successful the design is. This, hopefully, will be used as a
demonstration to show how the replacement heart valve works.
Constraints:
3D printing size restricted to 5"x5"x2"
Cost (hopefully under $500)
Timeline:
Week
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Task
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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10
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Study of Artificial Heart Valves
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x
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x
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Establishment of Goals for New Heart Valve
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x
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Initial Drawings of the Heart Valve
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x
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x
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Creo Model Design
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x
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x
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Design and Creation of Testing Apparatus
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x
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x
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x
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Purchase of Materials
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x
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x
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x
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Initial 3D Printing
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x
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x
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Initial Testing of Artificial Heart Valve Using
Testing Apparatus
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x
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x
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Second Round of 3D Printing (if needed)
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x
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x
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x
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x
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x
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Second Round of Testing (if needed)
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x
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x
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x
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x
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Final report preparation
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x
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x
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x
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