3D Printing- A Frustrating But Rewarding Learning Experience
Clinical Project: Nasal Cannula Redesign
As time consuming as CAD can be, I was excited that we would end up not only designing a new cannula interface, but also that we would have the opportunity to 3D print prototype(s). I’ve never 3D printed anything before, so I had all these expectations as well as a fundamental misunderstanding of the quality of the end result. Going into this project I kinda thought that you draw a beautiful model in CAD, send it to the printer, and a few hours later you have your design in physical form…
While this is somewhat true, I had no idea that the printers can be so finicky. I also didn’t realize how much the orientation of the model matters when printing. For example, the second prototype we tried to print, the orientation was such that the cannula prongs wouldn’t print because supports weren’t properly placed— and that’s another thing, I didn’t know supports even existed (Anita’s 3-D printing workshop probably would’ve helped with these things…). There was also the whole process of getting the supports out, and I didn’t realize how difficult that can be when using such a flexible material like NinjaFlex.
Through the iterative process- tweaking thicknesses and orientation and eventually making dramatic changes to scaling- and many trips to the Scholars Lab, we were finally able to 3D print our design. With all the frustrations experienced in the process, from CADing to 3D printing, it was so rewarding to be able to physically hold and play with a design we’d formerly only had on paper.
BME Design 