Medical Case Study
Clients Objective
Design and manufacture a replica human mouth and throat to test drug inhalers accurately for volume and distribution going into the oesophagus and lungs.
Design
After initial consultations we were presented with a basic CAD stl file as a starting point. Working with this we had to design an assembly which would be both cost effective and accurate.
The complexity of the human mouth made this challenging but equally interesting. We had to make the assembly out of 4 parts as we have illustrated below, each part had to be precise on assembly to ensure there were no air gaps for the drugs tested to escape. Working with the client we came to an amicable agreement.
Manufacturing
Being heavily involved in the design process give us an obvious advantage when it came to making the assembly as we were fully aware of the fit and function of the part.
After initial set ups we machined the main body on one of our multi axis machines, this gave us the reliably accurate benefit of being able to machine all the internal critical surfaces in one visit, and to keep the cost down as there was one setup cost opposed to four doing it conventionally. Once this was done we were able to bolt on the extra pieces and machine these in situation which again maintained the accuracy of the assembly.
Conclusion
We are very pleased to say that the client was elated with the end result on visual appearance. The proof however was in the testing. After various tests with numerous inhalers the results that came back were better than anyone had envisaged. Their project was presented to the FDA and were awarded a grant to further the trials and hence we won future contracts in the development of this concept.