Abstract:

The manufacturing process is an important phase and it's become the major concern in manufacturing industries. Many industries use the traditional manufacturing process for product development which is time-consuming, expensive and it requires skilled labor which in turn leads to a huge investment for the development of a product. These are the problems that originate due to the use of the current conventional methods. So, keeping all these inobservances, additive manufacturing (3D Printing) Process is utilized to print the vent splitter which is useful in medical applications and helpful in pandemic situations 3D printed Vent splitter is prototyped in a fused deposition modeling machine. This FDM technology is widely used in the Additive manufacturing industry. The two-way vent splitter is printed by using Polylactic Acid (PLA) material. A normal splitter can use only once for a single patient. To overcome this, a vent splitter was designed to use up to 4 times simultaneously for two patients. Numerical analysis can perform a PLA material prototype to predict the behavior of the specimen. During epidemics or pandemics affecting the respiratory systems, hospital equipment such as ventilators may become insufficient and different solutions can be considered. In fast-spreading respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 due to the rapidly increasing number of patients, ventilator machine insufficiencies may appear. It may be considered to use one hospital ventilator for more than one patient by dividing the airway of the machine with a specially designed splitter. This study aimed to determine when the ventilator can be modified to provide ventilation of two or more patients simultaneously by using 3D-designed and manufactured splitters. A two-port and four-port splitter were designed in a computer program and manufactured by 3D printed. Two sets of splitters were used to adapt to the ventilator during the trial process: one for aspiratory and one for expiratory outputs. Two intensive care specialists voluntarily tried this study on themselves. It was concluded from the study that 3D designed and manufactured two-port splitter can be used to separate the way of a single ventilator to multiple patients within a very limited indication and time-interval.

Description:

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