NxStage Medical, Inc.
Time:
July 2018 – December 2018 Location: Lawrence, Massachusetts Role: Disposables Engineering R&D Co-OP NxStage Medical, Inc. is a medical device company that creates and manufacture products for end-stage renal disease and acute kidney failure At NxStage, I had the opportunity to be part of the engineering team were I could help design, prototype and test their upcoming cartridges that is designed to drastically improve renal treatment Main Project: Background/Problem Statement: Filter clotting/clogging in long duration renal treatment will inevitably interrupt the process. Filter would then need to be taken out and the patient will have to restart the treatment Task: Understand, design, prototype and a cartridge that allows the patient to swap out clogged filter with a new one without having to stop the treatment. Steps: 1.Used SolidWorks to modify previous designs of an existing cartridge and incorporate a stand alone filter 2.Prototype the design 3.Verified with engineers and nurses and redesign any problems found 4.Verified with contractors and manufacturing companies to verify molding size of minor parts 5.Maintained an organized bill of material and presented to managers an updated project tracking document each week 6.Performed Drop/Shock/Vibration tests on the prototypes Skills Developed: Instron Machine, Shaker Table Testing, Drop and Shock Vibration Test, Thermal Chamber Incubation Experiment, Project Management, Product verification and minor parts testing, Teamwork and communication, Material Selection and Part ordering You can find a better look/understanding of this project by clicking on this link |
Initial cartridge before any modifications were made
New cartridge after the modifications
Major Design changes
–Modified and tested venous line tubing’s length multiple times –Modified arterial line tubing’s length from until it fits comfortably with the dialysis machine –Added an air chamber to the new cartridge to filter out any air from going into the filter Minor design changes –Flipped the roller-clamps on the venous and arterial line –Implemented green shipping connectors into design |