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Boston Scientific: Catheter shaft singulator

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Project Overview

In medical device manufacturing, catheter shafts require overmolding, an injection molding process in which hot plastic is injected over the shaft and bonded to it. This molded part can create couplings, manifolds, or otherwise functional components to the catheter assembly. The shafts can vary in size and stiffness (rigid hypotubes to flexible “garden hose like” shafts). In an effort to improve quality and throughput by reducing variability in the process, Boston Scientific is looking for solutions to automate the shaft preparation process.

The first step in this process is taking a bundle of shafts and repeatedly presenting a single shaft to an operator and/or robot. The system should be able to accept multiple shafts (of the same type at once) as input and provide a single shaft as an output. The single shaft output is removed and processed by an operator or robot. Once the shaft is cleared from the output area, the system should advance another shaft until there no longer remains any shafts in queue. The system should indicate when another shaft is ready for pick-up. Ideally, the system should be adaptable to multiple shaft types.

Team Picture

Team members from left to right: Viktor, Andrew, Juliana, Josh, Carly, Anjali
Team members from left to right: Viktor, Andrew, Juliana, Josh, Carly, Anjali

Contact Information

Team Members

  • Juliana Damberg - Team Leader
  • Carly Rogers - Communicator
  • Anjali Busch - Co-BSAC
  • Viktor Mudry - Co-BSAC
  • Andrew Meixelsperger - BWIG
  • Josh Schroeder - BPAG

Advisor and Client

  • Prof. Justin Williams - Advisor
  • Christopher Nguyen - Client
  • Ms. Lisa Shoemaker - Alternate Contact

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