Parametric nasopharyngeal swab for sampling COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses: Open source design, SLA 3-D printing and UV curing system

Authors

Nicole Gallup, Michigan Technological University
Adam Pringle, Michigan Technological University
Shane Oberloier, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
Nagendra Gautam Tanikella, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
Joshua M. Pearce, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-19-2020

Department

Department of Biomedical Engineering; Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Abstract

Access to nasopharyngeal swabs for sampling remain a bottleneck in some regions for COVID19 testing. This study develops a distributed manufacturing solution using only an open source manufacturing tool chain consisting of two types of open source 3-D printing and batch UV curing, and provides a parametric fully free design of a nasopharyngeal swab. The swab was designed using parametric OpenSCAD in two components (a head with engineered break point and various handles), which has several advantages: i) minimizing print time on relatively slow SLA printers, ii) enabling the use of smaller print volume open source SLA printers, iii) reducing the amount of relatively expensive UV resin, and iv) enabling production of handle on more accessible material extrusion 3-D printers. A modular open source UV LED box was designed, fabricated for $45 and tested for batch curing. Swabs can be fabricated for $0.06-$0.12/swab. The results of the mechanical validation tests showed that the swabs could withstand greater forces than would be expected in normal clinical use. The swabs were also able to absorb a significant amounts of synthetic mucus materials and passed abrasion and handling tests. The results show the open source swab are promising candidates for clinical trials.

Publisher's Statement

© 2020 by the author(s). Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY license. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0310.v1

Publication Title

Preprints

Recommended Citation

Gallup, N., Pringle, A., Oberloier, S., Tanikella, N., & Pearce, J. M. (2020). Parametric nasopharyngeal swab for sampling COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses: Open source design, SLA 3-D printing and UV curing system. Preprints. http://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202005.0310.v1
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/2107

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Version

Publisher's PDF