Serenitea: Exploring material-based opportunities and scent integration in Tea Clay for visually impaired inclusive design

Each year, 5.9 million tonnes of tea is consumed worldwide. However, this large consumption of tea also leads to large amounts of tea waste. Approximately 90% of steeped tea is being thrown away. This waste leads to problems such as environmental pollution. In order to combat this issue, Tea Clay was previously developed as a material made from...

Characterisation of a Thin Functionally Graded Bi-metallic Wall Fabricated Using Wire-Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM): A Study on the Microstructural Evolution and Mechanical Behaviour Due to Grading

A multi-material structure combines diverse materials, allowing for precise tailoring of properties in specific regions. The integration of dissimilar materials leads to superior performance compared to single-material components. Bimetallic structures, a subset of multi-material systems, offer site-specific performance owing to the contrasting...

Blending organic and virtual worlds: Unpacking mutualistic care with DNA data storage in microalgae

In complex and distributed human-made-systems, the intimate co-dependency between humans and non-humans can feel distant and vague. A novel approach for fostering a sense mutual care between people and living organisms can be found within biodesign, where living artefacts provide human users with functional benefits, like lighting, air purifying...

Effect of microstructure on the degradation of 3D printed Mg-4Zn porous scaffolds

Many manufacturing industries have been impacted by the innovation of additive manufacturing (AM), and biomaterials manufacturing is no exception. One group of biomaterials impacted by the innovation of 3D printing are degradable biomaterials. Degradable biomaterials could eliminate the need for surgery to remove the implant. 3D printed porous...

Design and validation of a 3D printed curved hydraulic cylinder for a prosthetic wrist joint

Introduction: Amputees still experience problems with the use of their upper limb prostheses, mainly in the lack of comfort and functionality. This results in rejection of the prosthesis or overuse injuries due to compensatory movements. The comfort and functionality should be improved by reducing weight and increasing the degrees of freedom....

Development of a 3D Printed Patient-Specific Orthosis for Wrist Immobilization in Long-Term Use

Background: Wrist immobilization orthosis is a commonly adopted treatment method for wrist regarding pathologies. In recent years, a group of 3D-printed immobilization orthosis for the upper extremity has been proposed. However, they were mainly developed as substitutes for traditional casts for the upper extremity for short-term usage. There...

The future of fracture management: Feasibility of in-house design, production and implementation of 3D printed wrist casts for the treatment of distal radius fractures

INTRODUCTIOND istal radius fractures are traditionally treated with plaster casts. Although this has been the gold standard for treatment for years, it also comes with disadvantages. These are the weight, not being water-resistant and a lack of ventilation, leading to skin problems, itching and compromised hygiene. Furthermore, plaster has no...

Design of a Novel Propulsion Mechanism for Flexible Endoscopes Inspired by Plant Root Growth: A Bio-Inspired Solution to Propagation through the Human Colon

When inserting a flexible endoscope into a human colon during colonoscopy, limitations in the endoscope design can cause medical implications such as excessive colon stretching and buckling of the endoscope shaft. This thesis proposes a novel propulsion mechanism design for flexible endoscopes which changes the method of insertion as a way to...

Effect of sterilization on 3D printed patient-specific surgical guides

Background The current workflow for the design and production of patient-specific surgical guides at the Elisabeth-TweeSteden hospital is out-sourced to external companies, making it a time-consuming and costly task. In order to minimize the production time and expenses, the design and fabrication of these guides could be implemented into the...

Designing for Post-Processing: A Case Study of a 3D Printed Surgical Instrument

In this report a design is proposed for a laparoscopic gripper that can be manufactured with metal 3D printing and polished with mass finishing. The design is a continuation of the development of a laparoscopic gripper that can be 3D printed in plastic. Laparoscopic grippers 3D printed solely out of metal have not yet been presented....

ARM3D: A 3D printed transhumeral arm prosthesis

Aim: This project aims to design a lightweight, inexpensive and easy to use upper arm prosthesis through improving the design of ARM3D, which is a 3D printed body-powered transhumeral arm prosthesis. This study will cover general shortcomings of body-powered arm prostheses as the weight, cost, amount of parts and limited accessibility of them....

The Role of Phase Combinations on the Corrosion and Passivity Behaviour of High Strength Steels

Literature reports a great deal of contradictory results concerning the effect of microstructure on the corrosion and passivity behaviour of advanced high strength steels. The difficulty in identifying the controlling cause of corrosion results from the inability of disentangling the coupled effects of individual microstructural features in a...

Solidification cracking during laser beam welding: A study on advanced high strength steels

Third-generation advanced high strength steels (AHSS) are a new class of steels that offer superior functional properties and significant weight savings in the body-in-white (BIW) structure of a car. Weight savings directly translate to reduced CO₂ emissions from cars which aids automotive manufactures to meet the vehicle emission...

A newly developed 3D-printed porous titanium vertebral body implant for osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures: A proof of principle

The incidence of osteoporotic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs) is rapidly increasing, necessitating the identification of the most appropriate treatment method. The well-established first and second generation surgical procedures are not capable of giving optimal outcomes. Moreover, my literature study has shown little to no improvements...

The effect of post process treatments on biomechanical properties of Ti6Al4V metamaterials and spinal cage implants manufactured by selective laser melting

Selective laser melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing technique, which is currently on the rise of being used for manufacturing bone implants. Spinal cage, dental and hip implants can for example be manufactured using SLM. Ti6Al4V lattice structures, categorised as metamaterials, can be printed by SLM with mechanical properties close to...

Calcification & Fibrous Tissue Characteristics in Atherosclerotic Plaques: A Combined Analysis and Modeling Approach

Atherosclerotic plaque rupture is the main cause of acute myocardial infarction and stroke, the two leading causes of death worldwide. Rupture of plaque tissue is a mechanical event, where plaque stress or strain locally exceeds its strength. Biomechanical studies agree with histopathological findings that a large lipid pool and thin fibrous cap...

Characterization of Glaucomatous Rat Eye Optic Nerve Head Biomechanics with Individual-Specific Finite Element Modeling

Glaucoma is the leading cause of irreversible blindness and in 2040, more than 111 million people are expected to have the disease. Vision loss in glaucoma is caused by the death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) primarily in the optic nerve head (ONH). Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is a well-known causative risk factor for glaucoma,...