How to Fix a Widget

3D printing on a ‘proactive’ needs assessment visit.

Since early 2017 Field Ready have been fixing and making things using 3D printing and other digital manufacturing technologies under the DFID UKAid Frontier Technology Livestreaming grant.

Here’s how we fix things.

A suction pump connector 3D printed during a needs assessment visit to Gumdi, a rural healthpost in Gorkha District, Central Nepal.

This is a damaged suction pump at a birthing unit in rural Gorkha. The white plastic connector sheered off during transit.

First we have to find something broken to fix. Through our network of local NGO and INGO partners in Nepal, Field Ready gains access to supported health facilities. We talk to partners about current problems that we might be able to help with then undertake what we call ‘proactive’ needs assessment visits. These don’t just identify problems for further action but document and prioritise challenges that can be fixed there and then and triage the others by severity, time to fix and potential impact. Field Ready can act as kind of first aid or emergency maintenance service.

Here the damaged component is examined in situ.

The damaged component is measured in every internal and external dimension.

We undertake a thorough assessment of the problem identified and, when fixable there and then, we go into action. First understanding the technical aspects of the problem but also trying to work out why the component broke in the first place and building that learning into our design work.

A model is created for the potential replacement part.

Here we see Field Ready’s Ram Chandra Thapa with his digital design and the faulty part.

Digital modelling is a vital part of what we do. Once modelled the replacement part or fix can be reproduced from a simple digital file. We have also sent designs around the world to be used and called upon the skills of designers from the international maker movement.

For the suction pump connector, the design aspect, including measurement, took around 40 minutes.

Design work and our rapid prototyping methods can be surprisingly quick to yield a functional prototype. Refining the designs to a state of somewhere near perfection is more time consuming though. Quality products come from quality design and that’s why we try to improve parts we fix, not just replace like for like. This connector design had a screw thread versus ribs for the original design, thus improving the insertion and removal of the connector.

Setting up the solar panel in the warm Nepali winter sun. Our small UP! 3D printer runs off a 12V power source.

We can carry around a plastics factory and all we need to make amazing things with it in a small box.

Our bare necessities. The printer itself weighs under 4 kilograms.

Very little equipment is actually needed. If we had the design to hand we could have just taken the printer, the filament and a USB memory stick.

While the machine printed the design, Ram was able to explain the principles of fused deposition modelling to the staff and service users at the health post.

Engaging with staff and service users is vital to gaining engagement and understanding not just about the technology but of the challenges we can solve and the potential for impact of this approach.

The solution to the suction pump connector problem had taken our INGO partner 3 weeks, dozens of man hours, a long supply chain and $150 USD to solve. Field Ready were able to solve the problem in an hour with only $1 of materials and $8 of time. Under $10. That’s the power of 3D printing.

Ta-Da! The finished product. After 40 minutes of measuring and designing and only 20 minutes of printing Gumdi health post had a new suction pump connector.

After a quick test using the electric and manual pump functions we handed back the newly fixed suction pump to the birthing unit.

The healthpost-in-charge was thrilled with the fix and couldn’t believe that within an hour we’d produced a professional and permanent fix for his suction pump. Something that had been broken for weeks was now back up and running.

The design for the suction pump connector is on Thingiverse free to access forever.

Though a simple fix, this suction pump connector illustrates the challenge of maintenance in rural and resource-constrained settings faced by big and small organisation alike, even governments. It also shows that, perhaps counterintuitively, a high-tech solution can actually be very efficient compared to the nearest best traditional alternative. Bringing broken medical equipment back online can improve care quality and outcomes for patients. Maintenance and repair might not be glamorous, but it can be powerful.

Field Ready are continuing to work with UK Aid through the Frontier Technology Livestreaming programme to fix medical equipment for health services in rural Nepal.