<p>In this work, we use a group project approach for a group of undergraduate students to design and develop a mechanical ventilator, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID -19 has disruptive effects on student learning. However, it also provides an opportunity to motivate students to tackle this real-world challenge. In this work, through a student group project, a team of undergraduate students successfully designed and fabricated a mechanical bag valve mask (BVM) ventilator prototype. The ventilator prototype combines design elements from existing DC motor actuator systems into an easily printed, assembled, and installed device. Specifically, it is lightweight, a single controller is driven, capable of volume adjustment, inexpensive, open-source, and designed for ease of fabrication, installation, and operation by the average user. The ventilator prototype also consists of 3D printed components and stored bought hardware. To address the issue of cost and to make an efficient, easy-to-build ventilator system available to health care facilities, our ventilator prototype is about a total cost of material of less than $200. For assembly, the ventilator is positioned in a horizontal dimension, and below are steps/instructions on how this ventilator was mounted. Before going into the setup stage, it needs to be stated that the team tried to make this ventilator a convertible system, i.e., a ventilator that can be positioned in a horizontal or vertical orientation. This could not fully be achieved because the material used for the base of the ventilator is not strong enough to support the weight of the motor. Nevertheless, if a stronger material is used then it will be possible to convert this ventilator to accommodate for both positions. This is the reasoning behind having a square cut closer to the edge. The idea of having variability is to accommodate space or unique position choices in a hospital room. Using the reciprocating motion system, the ventilator is capable to provide an air supply with adjustable breath frequencies. The steps for mounting/setting this ventilator up are summarized. Finally, the ventilator system is fully assembled and tested to function properly.</p><p>Through this project, the students developed a variety of skills to complete the construction of the ventilator. Additionally, a CAD model was built to understand the motion mechanisms in the ventilator, which can further help optimize the system. For this open source project, all the design files including those used for 3D printing can be found at GitHub site. This group project helped build these expected role competencies in engineering students.</p>

Design, Modeling, and Fabrication of a Ventilator Prototype_x000B_- A Successful Student Project Story

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

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