Design Development

Phase 1:

The first phase of the project was focussed on the mechanical design of the testing rig. The transfer unit was the most most critcial part of this, it had to be rigid, waster tight and operate under a specfic pressure and flow rates in order for the propsed testing method to work. The unit has to precisly milled out a solid block of polycarbonate and the design was refined over several design iterations. The testing rig was then assembled and the proposed methods were validated. Water mixed with pectin and dye was used as stand-in for blood.

Phase 2:

In phase 1 tests had to be fully supervised and all data recorded manually, by using a microcontroller (Arduino) it was possible to completely automate the process. Designing such a system became the primary focus of this second stage of development. The pumps in the rig were linked to and controlled by the main sensors. Data was captured and logged to an Sd card in an easily readable format. The whole testing rig was controlled by a touchscreen UI which not only allowed the user to chose when the test bagan but also gave feedback on the process of the test and also on the status of the rig in general (is there room of the SD card?, has a sample been loaded ? , etc.) The user could also calibrate the sensors using this interface.