COVID_CLAMP

thingiverse

Because of the COVID-19 crisis in early 2020, I was contacted by a local second-year medical student from the University of Ottawa, Mina Boshra, who wanted to design a 3D printed clamp for the intubation tubing used on hospital ventilators. Mina has an interest in curating CAD models for medical uses. He received feedback from doctors with whom he was working that they were running out of standard and expensive kosher clamps (typically used in surgeries). They wanted to see if a cost-effective 3D printed alternative could be used. I worked on the design for several weeks, with many iterations along the way. Initially, I didn't have access to the correct tubing, so I used a stand-in tube that was too soft. We quickly realized this wouldn't work, and Mina shipped the correct tube, allowing me to move forward quickly. The original design iterations focused on keeping things simple and included an integrated flexible hinge. However, the 11mm intubation medical tubing has extremely thick walls and is not easily squeezed. It requires a lot of force to achieve a full flow stop closure. My initial designs weren't going to work; the plastic hinge wasn't strong enough. The design evolved into a "pliers" type design with an integrated latch clip. I believe this is the only method that can allow for the necessary force to achieve a full stop closure. Print details: * No raft * Layer height: 0.15-0.25 mm * Infill: 40% or more * M5 screw, 20-25 mm long; use a 13/64 drill bit to clean up the hole Your task is to distribute this file around the world, build upon it, and make it better. This design works well, but one of the doctor's requests was to have it be removable with one hand. The current design requires two-handed removal. I think that with some tweaking to the latch, it could be made to hold closed while still being able to be flicked open with a little pressure from fingers. Additionally, I wanted to test if a 3D printed "bolt" or pivot could work instead of using an M5 bolt. This way, there would be no need to source the hardware. For further details regarding this project, please contact: * Mina Boshra at mbosh103@uottawa.ca * Me at truespecID@gmail.com Let's help save lives.