Latest work: Single-use Cartridge Redesign
Latest work: Single-use Cartridge Redesign
This group project outlines the redesign of a single-use cartridge for a nanoparticle analyzing machine, focusing on improving usability, reducing contamination risks, and enhancing ergonomics while maintaining production costs below €10. The redesigned cartridge, made of polypropylene, consists of a “flat hinge” film hinge, a lens cap, fiber, O-ring, and baseplate, assembled through injection molding. The design ensures fiber and lens cap protection, enables manual assembly by users, minimizes contamination, and simplifies the user’s steps. Key improvements include protected components, hand assembly capability, reduced contamination risk, and fewer user steps, offering significant advantages over the existing solution.
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The research involved in-depth analysis on several fronts, including the optimal material selection where polypropylene was identified for its balance of cost and performance. Precision in component placement was crucial, with a focus on ensuring the lens and fiber alignment within tight tolerances for accurate analysis. Environmental considerations were also taken into account, aiming for a design that minimizes waste and encourages recycling. The study highlighted the importance of user-centric design, aiming to simplify the cartridge assembly and usage process, thereby reducing potential errors and contamination risks.
The concepts mostly focused on different types of interaction, where it was tried to reach the configuration with the best user experience and least amount of contact so there was little chance of contamination.
The final design has the best user experience out of all the concepts. The design has been redeveloped to provide easy alignment at micrometer accuracy, and is foolproof. This also means there is almost no way for the user to contaminate the sample inside of the cartridge.
