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MATERIAL PROPERTIES MANIPULATION
Seattle Children's Research Institute
This project was commissioned by the cardiology department in Seattle Children’s. They wanted to create a way to give heart surgeons something to practice on before operations because heart surgeries are highly unique and difficult for even experienced surgeons. Our lab set out to create low cost heart models based on scans of patients’ hearts by 3D printing the hearts. I was assigned the task of modifying the material powder printers used to be elastic by chemical infiltration. This required research into chemical composition, infiltration of liquids, and process modifications to most efficiently create these new properties.
Material Properties Manipulation: Project
As chemistry is not my expertise, the first thing that I needed to do was research. Not only into how to modify materials to be more flexible, but also into what base components powder printers use. Once the basic research was out of the way, I began looking more in depth at material infiltration. The first tests involved polyurethane infiltration, before moving on to a broader set of materials. Some materials were meant to loosen the bonds of the powder print material, while others were meant to add their own structure so that the powder could be broken. All materials were texted for depth of infiltration, flexibility, and durability.
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Once material testing was completed, the next step was maximizing infiltration of the best material. This was done through a pressure chamber. Different times and pressures were used to find out what the best results were and the fastest way to achieve them. With that completed, all that was left is getting a heart model tested. However, as just dunking the model into the material is a waste, various pouring methods were testing to get a even distribution of the material.
Material Properties Manipulation: Text
Material Properties Manipulation: Image
Going outside what I am used to working with, this project taught me many things. To begin, the experience with researching materials through data sheets and manufacture data tables was something I had not needed to do before, so familiarizing myself with what it took was in and of itself something useful. Along with that, I got to work in depth with silicone and polyurethane, which helped me understand a lot about their limitations and how they differed from each other. Most importantly, I got to learn the best practices for modifying a material to do what you want. There are many custom materials out there that can have any combination of properties, but being able to achieve similar results using cheaper matierials is a useful skill to have.
Material Properties Manipulation: Text
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