Description

The use of fluidic amplifiers as a means to create a ventilator is a well established technology that saw much development throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The benefit of this technology is that it requires only compressed medical gas as its input. All cycles of the breathing process through such fluidic ventilators are controlled mechanically by the fluidic amplifiers and pressure regulators (i.e. no electronics, etc). The amplifiers utilize the Coanda effect to achieve this control characteristic. Many fluidic ventilator products saw commercial development and use in the 1960s and 1970s. There appears to be a handful of suppliers on the market still using this technology today. This submission proposes the finalized development of an additive manufactured/injection molded version of the fluidic ventilators (i.e. 3D printing the fluidic amplifers, etc). The amplifer geometry lends itself to being 3D printable and gives us the potential of quickly mass producing the design. Additionally, the final iteration will be able to be injection molded which would further increase manufacturing throughput. A proof of concept was 3D printed based on the description of the commercially available device in a white paper (Fluidic Technology, Klaine & Smith-1976). This proof of concept has not been optimized for the breathing cycle but does demonstrate the concept. It is shown in the attached video