Imagine spending precious time
and money on an idea for a medical device that didn’t work right, just
because the product hadn’t been prototyped and tested. It wouldn’t be
your best day.

The only way to know if your
product looks and functions properly is to produce a prototype and then
test it. Having a good prototype made is also beneficial for market
research so you have something tangible to show
your investors and/or customers.

A prototype is an early sample
or model built to test a concept or process, or act as something to be
replicated or learned from. Rapid Prototyping improves product
development by enabling better communication in a
concurrent engineering environment.

A prototype has several
benefits: The inventor, designer or implementer can receive valuable
feedback from the users early in the project. It also allows the
engineer to draw some insight into the accuracy of the initial
project and estimate whether the deadlines and milestones proposed can
be successfully met. Inventors and product development teams can use
rapid prototyping to help communicate their invention to customers,
supervisors, manufacturers. Significant advantages
of prototyping include reduction of project cost and risk.

This talk will detail various methods of developing prototypes for
medical devices. Case studies will be presented detailing medical
device prototyping at various stages of the development process. Topics
will include:
CAD design and rapid prototyping methods, machined or custom
manufactured prototypes, and prototype molding. The presentation will
address the limitations of prototypes and how the prototypes can
effectively be tested and utilized in the development process.
The capabilities that the Plastics Engineering Department can offer
M2D2 partners will be highlighted.

Prof. Stephen Johnston holds a
B.S. in Plastics Engineering Technology from Penn State University, and
a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Dr.
Johnston’s teaching duties include undergraduate
and graduate level courses in the areas of plastic product design, mold
design, and injection molding. His research interests include process
development, process control, product design, and mold design for
injection molding. Prof. Johnston works closely
with industry on numerous research projects, many of which are medical
companies involved with M2D2 including: TheraTorr Medical, 5G Medical,
Vista Scientific, and Oz Technologies.