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Print-A-Punch: A device to cut cruciform-shaped samples from soft tissue for biaxial testing

Develop an affordable and easy-to-use cutting system to generate symmetric cruciform-shaped soft tissue samples

Project Overview

Soft tissues exhibit complex mechanical behavior that is nonlinear, anisotropic, hyperplastic, and heterogeneous. Biaxial testing is an important experimental approach to quantify a sample’s mechanical properties and to determine the effect of microstructure, disease, and therapy on tissue function. The cruciform, a cross-like sample shape, was implemented in planar biaxial testing to improve strain field uniformity. However, soft tissue samples are challenging to cut into ideal sample geometries due to their variable sizes, geometries, and aspect ratios. We have shown asymmetry induces high shear strain and shear forces, which most testing systems cannot measure. When these forces and strains are ignored, there is an erroneous computation of material properties. These errors may lead to an overestimation of strength in the case of tearing and rupture and inaccuracies patient specific models that rely on these material property estimations. Recently, another group developed a method to bend and secure razor blades in a 3D printed clamping system in order to cut uniaxial dumbbell shaped samples, which circumvented the impractical high cost of custom steel punches. The goal of this project is to generate a similar system for the cruciform.

Project Status

The team is currently in the prototyping and testing phase of the project, making adjustments to the current designs and evaluating their effectiveness.

Team Picture

Members(left to right): Daniel Pies, Colin Bailey, Emmett Jones, Cole Miller, Kendra Ohde
Members(left to right): Daniel Pies, Colin Bailey, Emmett Jones, Cole Miller, Kendra Ohde

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Progress Reports

Contact Information

Team Members

Advisor and Client

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