Medical Life Cycle Test System  

Challenge

The customer had a need to analyze the performance of a product to enhance vascular surgical technique. The necessary life cycle is, by design, quite lengthy, making it difficult to observe accurately by hand.

They needed to automate the system to closely monitor a set of sample vessels. The system is capable of simulating a variety of physiological conditions to provide stresses on the samples. Unlike a human observer, the system is able to watch the entire process for days at a time and observe the very precise time and conditions of failure. 

Solution

We created a system consisting of a LabVIEW touch screen application running on thin-client PC. A combination of USB DAQ and custom hardware was created to provide control and measurement.

The system features include:

• Monitor up to six samples simultaneously
• Periodic logging of the all the test parameters
• Very quick response to shut down path of failed vessel immediately upon leak
• Accurate control of pulsing pressure, simulating physiological conditions
• Fluid temperature control, simulating physiological conditions
• Data is logged to a CSV file for customer evaluation in Excel
• Touch-screen friendly user interface

Technical Details

This system was created using USB DAQ and custom circuitry for I/O interfacing. The software was developed in LabVIEW using the S5 Solutions ALOHA system.