Designed by Evan LaCombe
The purpose of this project was to make a structure to support a pig bladder in its natural shape while sitting in an aqueous experimental setup. The structure was designed with these factors in mind.
- The structure should hold the pig bladder roughly in its natural shape
- The structure should allow most of the surface of the pig bladder to be in direct contact with an aqueous chemotherapy solution.
- The structure needs to withstand prolonged exposure to caustic chemotherapy gemcitabine at 43 C.
- The structure should allow instruments to pass into the pig bladder
- The pig bladder should be easily removable from the support structure
With these criteria, Evan came up with the solution shown below
Evan made a mesh structure that had sufficient strength and minimal bar thickness. While the client is currently using a FDM printed PLA version of the mesh as a temporary solution, the final product will be printed with SLA High Temp resin. The SLA High Temp resin is chemical inert, and will last a long time without deforming even when exposed to caustic gemcitabine at 43 C for prolonged periods. The SLA printed part will also be an improvement because it will not be able to be waterlogged like the FDM printed part is.