One-piece BVAD called as AnyHeart contains the right and left blood sacs, which are aritificial ventricles fabricated of polyurethane by dip-coating method. Because the ventricles have been fabricated by manual process, it is difficult to control thei...
One-piece BVAD called as AnyHeart contains the right and left blood sacs, which are aritificial ventricles fabricated of polyurethane by dip-coating method. Because the ventricles have been fabricated by manual process, it is difficult to control their thickness and mechanical properties, and the process also needs experts who have long-term experience in this work. Additionally the production rate and yield are also very low. Six-degree-of-freedom (6 D.O.F) robot was employed for the fabrication of membranes and ventricles. The procedures of manual coating were carefully monitored and were converted to the computer programs for robot operation. The thickness of membranes and ventricles fabricated by robot was measured and analyzed. The distribution of membrane thickness was utilized as control data for the improvement of robot program to fabricate ventricles. The thickness of ventricles was relatively more uniform than manually coated ones. The employment of robot system will be more useful for the fabrication of ventricles than manual process.