W.S.G. Isaac Newton

Design of a Control Valve for a Medical Device

During my 3 months of working at PCV Group, I was tasked with the design of a control valve for a medical device. This valve was supposed to regulate the water flow from a buffer vat to a nozzle. This seems simple at first, however, due to high working pressures and very small flow rates of 15 bars and 53 µ𝐿/𝑠, this was more difficult than initially thought. In the end, by comparing numerous ways of solving this issue, I decided to use a camshaft concept. This allowed for a PWM-like solution, which seemed optimal in this tiny, high-performance system. This was achieved with the help of two leaf springs, which held the follower in place. This follower was also spring-loaded to ensure that the rubber valve was not damaged. In the end, I was able to design, build, and test a potential for the solution at hand, which allowed me to verify that the concept does indeed provide a plausible solution.