In this take apart lab, my partner and I dissembled a IVAC Medical Pump. It is a medical device which is used to deliver fluids into a patient’s body in a controlled manner.

 

Glancing at the device, I found it was connected by two covers with the digital screen and bottoms in the front and a handle and the power adapter in the back. The covers were tightened by screws around so we decided to use the screw driver to unscrew the screws first. Then we got two parts.

 

 

By unscrewing the hex screw on the back, we are able to take off the power adapter and the battery. The handle on the back cover is connected by a special type of joint which we sadly couldn’t find a way to dissemble it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking into the inside of the back part, there were two circuit boards connected by wires, a micro speaker and a mini fan, which I am pretty sure was used to help cooling down the device and prevent from overheating. In a word, the design in the back is relatively simple and I believe some of the parts like speaker and fan were designed to be taken apart so that they can be replaced if malfunction.

 

 

 

The front part looks more complex. There was a large one piece board with some chips and hubs on it. In the front, we also saw two digital screen which we could took them off. Right next to the board was a wired thing which we called it ”The Puzzle”.

 

 

 

 

“The Puzzle” is the part that we spent most of our time doing. It had a kind of “clip-on” mechanism as the shell, which was really hard to clip off. Unfortunately, when I attempted to clip off, I broke the fragile plastic structure. After taking off the shell(by violence), we were able to disconnect the motor, which served as the power of this device. All of our deconstruction stopped here because I couldn’t find a method to take further step without broken it. This “Puzzle” was the key part of this whole machine and we believed it was designed not to be dissembled.

After taking apart this machine, I am really impressed by the design of that puzzle and I think I may never be able to put them back together. Although some parts can be taken out and put back, the major part of this device is designed not to be replaced. Therefore it may not be able to be recycled. Since it is a medical device, which any part of it can affect patients’ life, it is reasonable not to be modified personally.