Medical-Device Reliability Test Fixtures

GE Healthcare

In Madison, WI, GE Healthcare builds anesthesia-delivery systems and respirators. As a mechanical-engineering co-op on the anesthesia vaporizer team, I designed reliability test fixtures that cycle device components to their full service life to validate them before production, and managed engineering changes across product lines.

Reliability test fixtures

Each fixture holds a component precisely, actuates it through its real duty cycle, and logs cycles automatically.

Pressure-relief valves. I designed a fixture that cycles high-pressure anesthetic gas through 20 pressure-relief valves at once, running them to their lifetime-reliability target in a fraction of the real time.

A machined aluminum manifold that ports high-pressure gas to twenty pressure-relief valves, fixtured on a mill. — A machined aluminum manifold that ports high-pressure gas to twenty pressure-relief valves.

The pneumatic and electronic control panel that drives the pressure-relief-valve cycling. — The pneumatic and control panel that drives the gas cycling.

Vaporizer cover-door springs. A laser-cut acrylic rig cycles the cam-and-spring hinge behind an anesthesia vaporizer's cover door through thousands of open/close cycles.

A benchtop cam-and-spring fixture: a DC motor drives a cam that cycles a vaporizer cover-door mechanism, with Arduino control. — The cam-and-spring fixture cycling a vaporizer cover-door mechanism, under Arduino control.

Bag-arm PTFE bushing. I built a fixture that cycles the Aisys bag arm to test a PTFE bushing for wear across its service life.

The bag-arm bushing fixture cycling (click to play).