Archive for month: October, 2015

We often hear that this invention or that tech will be a game changer or birth some new industry or other.  These missives come so often we can become blasé about even the idea.  At the risk of being like so many other rah-rah overhypers, the technology we know as 3D printing is already changing the world.

 

A New Way To Print

3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file.  The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes.  In an additive process an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created.  Each of these layers can be seen as a thinly sliced horizontal cross-section of the eventual object.

–3D Printing.com

 

Our current default 3D printing technology involves a computer controlled emitter of stuff (usually primed with plastic, but metal, wood + resin, plant-based polymers, and food such as chocolate are all possible options) that moves about over an X-Y plane laying down precise amounts of the printed material under computer control.  Once a given slice or plane of material has been laid down and hardened, the emitter is lifted up ever so slightly and repeats the process.  This is all under computer control with the printer creating in real space the target model held in the computer’s memory.

Leveling the Machining Playing Field

Our array of 3D printers in the AARR laboratories allow us to print replacement parts of create new capabilities by generating new parts we have brainstormed.  Rather than sending some schematic off to the engineering department or a machine shop that would take weeks and weeks to produce something for hundreds or thousands of dollars, we can print our needed piece for a few cents over the course of a few minutes (or hour or two depending upon the size).

With this tech we have created, revised, and improved a whole host of underwater and aerial robots. Our Lulzbot printer cost less than $3,000 and yet has brought an amazing amount of manufacturing parity to our program, effectively equivalent to having a well-equipped CNC machine shop that would have cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) only a couple of years ago.  We can now produce robotic units that rival or surpass those from much wealthier and better resourced programs around the country.  This is exactly the phenomenon we have seen with cell phone technology across much of the globe.  In the late 1990s the developed world boasted the best telecommunications systems in the world.  Now the developed world (especially the United States) is the backwater with most developing economies have massively better, cheaper, and faster telecommunication networks.  Those countries often have essentially no landline phone networks to speak of.  So assembling cell phone networks and proliferating telecom service providers was easy and unimpeded.  Now every sheepherder I meet in eastern Turkey has a cell phone with signal reception usually better than what we are afforded in our laboratory building.  In the case of 3D printing, we here at CI had nothing and so jumping on the latest tech was easy.  At most of our more established university campuses in the U.S. and beyond, there is way too much investment in traditional machining and machining technologies to simply pivot to the new and improved world of 3D printing.  So they are staying with the AT&T model of slow speed, insanely overpriced services, sloth-like innovation speeds, and crappy products.

The Next Wave

The future of 3D printing includes optically printed objects created at speeds much faster than our current tech, an ever-more diverse array of materials comprising the printed objects, and a much greater complexity of the tissues comprising the printed object.

As nurses, it is vital that we take the time to educate patients fully on the disease they have and how they can manage it. Those who have diverticular disease need thorough instruction on the diet that they should stick to in order to prevent inflammation and infection (diverticulitis). In addition, there are some foods, specifically seeds, that these patients must stay away from.  Verbal education about the diet plan for these patients can be overwhelming. Therefore, a simple handout with foods that the patient should eat and possible meal plans can greatly decrease a patients anxiety and stress and hopefully help them maintain their disease and prevent further progression towards diverticulitis. While the patient’s diet will have to adapt to their disease, it does not mean they cannot enjoy good meals.

Here is a link for a handout that can be given to the patient in addition to verbal education. It explains what diverticular disease is, what foods are high in fiber, and suggests possible meal plans (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and diet the patient can eat.

Click to access gastro_diverticular.pdf

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Children pay attention more when they are entertained and are doing something they enjoy… As a matter of fact, who doesn’t?! To enhance patient teaching in the young pediatric populating, coloring books will be used to enhance their learning about their disease.  Coloring pages can be provided and explained by the nurse or the parents to tell the child about their condition.  In this way, the patient will be more open to learning and hearing about their condition and will have a better understanding of what is going on.