3D printing development highly realistic maternal simulator

Recently, simulation technology company CAE Healthcare has developed a Fidelis Maternal Fetal Simulator (MFS). The simulator uses a 3D printing unit supplied by Stratasys, whose primary function is to teach obstetricians how to deal with dangerous birth complications.

Although in today's technology and medical conditions, women's childbirth medical safety is very high, there will still be accidents in the delivery room, because extreme physical and psychological stress may cause problems in the whole body of women in production, which means Obstetricians and nurses must be prepared for every possible situation. The MFS developed by CAE with the help of Stratasys can help doctors and nurses prepare for this.

This part of the 3D printed birth simulator simulates maternal breathing, heart rate and childbirth, which means it can be used to replicate the various physical complications that a mother and fetus encounter during childbirth. The simulator consists of hundreds of different components and is equipped with an electronic monitoring system that displays the physiological data of the fetus. Its user interface even delivers real crying to accurately simulate what can happen during childbirth.

The design of a human patient simulator is a complex process that requires extensive validation of its components, especially those interacting with physical components. Giuseppe Mallaci, senior mechanical designer for the MFS project, said: "As we put moving parts and deformable parts into a confined space, its complexity is further increased. Any small changes need to be complicated. Design validation. The pressure of industry competition has made us need to minimize the product development cycle – rapid prototyping is a vital part of any of our product development plans.”

To develop this complex simulator, CAE employs Stratasys to use a number of 3D printing processes, including fused deposition (FDM), photocured rapid prototyping (SL), laser sintering (LS), QuantumCast cast polyurethane, and rapid processing. .

The condition of the fetus inside the simulator can be clearly seen through a transparent 3D printed wall that is photocured with Accura 60 material. The rest of the simulator uses different 3D printing processes depending on their needs. For example, articulated arms and legs are laser-sintered 3D printed, QuantumCast cast polyurethane is used as a fast production solution, and some parts use Stratasys' proprietary 3D printing process.

The ID-Light process prints large, light parts with an internal lattice structure, and the parts printed using this process can be 12 times lighter than the corresponding solid parts.

“These simulators include all the electronic components, firmware and software in order to be able to achieve manufacturing intent,” Mallaci said. “It will inevitably change every time it is validated. Rapid prototyping minimizes development costs.”

The first demonstration of MFS was in May last year, it can simulate a large number of delivery processes and scenarios: such as normal delivery, device-assisted vaginal delivery, maternal fever leading to fetal tachycardia, breech delivery, shoulder dystocia, uterine atony resulting in postpartum hemorrhage , maternal cardiac arrest, eclampsia and so on.