Fourth Full Day of Work

Once again, all teams put in a full day of work at the INF Green Pastures Hospital in Pokhara, Nepal! Read below to find out more from each team.

Electrical Team

Today was our first full day working on a new project on the electrical side of things. Before, we had mainly been looking over the controllers and solar systems that were already in place, but we started designing a change of the circuitry. Thomas Meier has controllers working to maximize the efficiency of the 12 and 24 volt systems and our task was to change the circuitry to maximize the efficiency of two 48 volt systems that as of now just charge the back up batteries and then do nothing. When the controller is done, the solar panels will charge the batteries and then switch to a different mode to the power the building. We got a good start to the design and tomorrow we will hopefully start putting it together with a test system to make sure everything works.

-TJ

Prosthetics Team

In the morning, Matt, Ryan and I worked more at preparing for the 3D printing presentation we will give Friday. It was rainy, so it was a good day to spend inside working. We keep hearing that more and more people at INF from different departments will be coming to our presentation/discussion Friday, and so the interest in 3D printing extends beyond just the Prosthetics and Orthotics Workshop! We therefore spent today tweaking and adding to the presentation to make it for a wider audience. Around lunch time we were able to meet with Meghan and she really liked our designs for the OT standing frame and standing desk, but she had a few suggestions and changes for us to go back and fix so we can give her a final design for both before we leave. We are excited give the presentation tomorrow and hopefully give the hospital a good understanding of what using a 3D printer would entail and the different advantages/disadvantages it might have.

-Bryson

Wheelchair Team

Today the wheelchair team was split up. While part of the team stayed back at the hospital to update and complete the 3D model of the wheelchair in SolidWorks, the rest of the team traveled into town to buy some parts. The parts bought today include caster wheels and hinges, along with some hardware in order to attach some of the essential features of the wheelchair. These parts will be traveling back to the US with us in order to begin prototyping our wheelchair. Buying these parts locally in Pokhara is extremely important so that we know whether or not the quality, strength, and availability allows for sustained manufacturability in Nepal. The team also stopped at a metal supplier to find out what sizes of steel tubing is available to construct the frame of the wheelchair. With help from Dr. Van Dyke, analysis in SolidWorks will be conducted to decide which thickness of the tubing will be strong enough for our purposes. Tomorrow, we plan to travel back to the metal supplier to get further information on sizing, prices, and tube bending. We will also plan to receive some feedback from our client on our progress and decisions.

-Cade