Airdrive next
Organ transportation container
The Airdrive Next has been developed for the Dutch company Oxiplenish and utilizes their unique mechanism that enables portable Machine Perfusion (a technique to preserve organs during transportation). The final design has been prototyped, digitally simulated and tested in the real world to ensure its working principle.
(Further information about the prefusion system can currently not be released due to confidentiality agreements.)
The assignment
The assignment has been to redesign the current airdrive to accommodate a far larger human liver and optimize the amount of assembly steps.
The final design still houses the patented prefusion system without any major modifications but the assembly steps are greatly reduced.
Prototype
A prototype has been build to be used during user testing and company presentations. The prototype is on a 1:1 scale, made out of CNC-milled PU-foam. Panels and displays are made out of vacuum-formed PS sheets.
I personally have been responsible for the entire prototype.
User testing
User tests have been conducted to validate ergonomics and to gather further insight into the demands of surgeons and other medical professionals.
Simulation
Guaranteeing that the Airdrive would keep an organ cold for 24 hours was vital for the success of the project. This has been done both virtual using computer
simulations and in the real world using a 24 hour test setup and a pigs liver. FEM computer simulations have been used until container has been modeled that would stay cool enough. The prototype of this model has been used to test in the real world that the computer model was valid. The tests have been successful and we can guarantee that the
product will keep an organ could enough during 12 hours.
Group members
Special thanks goes out to my outstanding group members:
- Lodewijk Bosman
- Jaco Jansen (responsible for the renders)
- Zoe Wu