The 3D CAD model enabled client to easily visualize the design and suggest necessary changes quickly.

Additive Manufacturing Boosts Prototyping of Medical Devices

Kashyap Vyas | Hi-Tech CADD Services

 

The growth in the application of additive manufacturing technique is tremendous across all the industries. The reason for its increasing adoption is the ability to design complex parts consisting of internal tubes, channels, curves and other features easily, which otherwise is not possible with the traditional subtractive manufacturing or molding techniques. Moreover, there is a wide scope in selecting different types of materials as well, to suit specific application. Medical industry is taking a significant advantage of these capabilities, to develop medical devices requiring complex natural shapes and advanced medical graded plastic materials.

Here’s one of the case studies to show Hi-Tech’s contribution in the Medical Device industry-

 

Case Study: Rapid Prototyping for Emergency Medical Box for a Healthcare Firm in UK

A leading healthcare service provider in UK approached Hi-Tech to conceptualize, design and develop a prototype model for a medical box for emergency situations. While the client came up with this idea with minimal design information, the challenge was to transform those ideas to a box design that best suited its purpose. Since the box design was meant for emergency situations, it was important that it had adequate number and sizes of compartments to include all the required medicinal supplies, and yet remain handy. It also had to be designed to sustain rough weather conditions with an ability to prevent lids from opening and avoid water or dust from entering the compartments.

3D CAD model of medical box with all the compartments developed using SolidWorks

 

3D CAD model of compartment lids used in medical box created in SolidWorks

 

The client inputs were carefully studied and a team of engineers and designers at Hi-Tech collaborated to develop a virtual CAD model of the medical box using SolidWorks. The 3D CAD model enabled client to easily visualize the design and suggest necessary changes quickly. The model was then finalized, considering the design and manufacturing feasibility and the final prototype was developed through additive manufacturing.

Prototype of medical box developed using additive manufacturing

Prototype of lids used for closing compartments in medical box developed through additive manufacturing

 

Prototype of medical box with medicinal supplies

 

With this prototype, it became easier for the client to evaluate the design and understand how exactly the medical box will look and function in real world conditions. It not only helped in reducing physical test trials, but allowed the client to push the product to manufacturing faster.

As a manufacturer or a design engineer, if you are in need to develop prototypes or plastic parts for medical applications, choose Hi-Tech CADD Services. With wide domain experience and industry leading 3D CAD modeling and rapid prototyping capabilities, we will help you in transforming your conceptual ideas to reality, so that one more life on earth can be saved.

 

 

 

About Kashyap Vyas
Kashyap Vyas is an Engineer at Hi-Tech CADD Services and holds a Master’s degree in Thermal Engineering with several research papers to his credit. He covers CAD and CAE topics for the engineering industry. His contributions are primarily focused on encouraging manufacturers and suppliers to adopt virtual product development tools to build efficient products with reduced time-to-market.

 
 
 
The content & opinions in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of ManufacturingTomorrow

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