Hi class, Welcome to my last blog post! Our first step of redesigning was ideating. The main improvement we wanted to make was the ease of use while putting the LUCIA together. This is what we came up with:
a press-fit, laser-cut pelvic frame that houses the existing vaginal canal and a 3D-printed cervix holder that hooks onto the back frame. This reduced many of the user steps in assembly by removing all screws and simplifying the cervix attachment. It also kept all fabrication low-cost.
We took the same measurements of the current LUCIA panels such that the existing vaginal canal could fit between the panels and we added our modifications.
We laser cut these and assembled them. Here’s where the iteration began. Firstly, the laser cut didn’t cut all the way through. So, we taped the wood, increased the power, and decreased the speed.
Secondly, the cervix hook had a weak point on the two hooks. So, we made the hook thicker and the prongs longer.
Thirdly, and more importantly, the panels were very unstable when put together.
So, we added triangle-shaped reinforcements on the corners of panel 1. This helped, and with some iteration, we got the press fit very tight.
Given this success, we decided to add reinforcements on panel 2.
Some final adjustments for easy assembly included the placement of the panel numbers in to match with the teeth of the panels and an arrow showing the direction of the base. Additionally, we added R and L indicators for the triangles since they were a bit confusing to assemble.
Finally, we added a rubber band to the bottom of the base to keep it from wobbling and this noticeably increased the stability. We experimented with a strip of hot glue, but that was less stable and harder to mass-produce.
In all, I believe we improved the ease of assembly while keeping the vaginal canal shape the same and keeping production methods low-cost and as simple as possible.
Some takeaways:
- The best laser cutter settings for us were:
- raster: 10 power, 20 speed
- vector: 3 speed, 100 power, 100 frequency
- The laser cutter didn’t cut through all the way when the board was warped, even when weighted down to the best of our ability. So, we had to split our design into multiple smaller files and print them individually, though on the same board of wood, so that we could weigh it down uniformly around the section of a given file.
Our cost analysis:
| Cost Type | Cost | Price | Source | Quantity | Total |
| Materials | ¼” MDF Laser Cutting Wood | $64/16 pieces | link | 1 | $64 |
| Screws | $7.97/100 pieces | link | 1 | $7.97 | |
| Washers | $12.76/25 pieces | link | 1 | $12.76 | |
| ABS material | $19.99/1kg | link | 49g | $0.98 | |
| Sand Paper | $7.09 | link | 1 | $7.09 | |
| Labor | Laser cutting operator | $19/hr | link | 6 | $114 |
| Prototyping Engineer (You!) | $18/hr | link | 6 | $108 | |
| Overhead | Facility Cost (Machine Time) | $25/hr | link | 3 | $75 |
| Design | Engineering and Development | $32/hr | link | 4 | $128 |
Total: $517.80
and clean final workspace:
