FlexiValve: Engineering Portable Adaptive Valved Holding Chambers for pMDI Users
Biomedical Engineering
Srikar Samavedam
Abstract
FlexiValve is an applied design project developing a portable, flexible valved holding chamber for asthma and COPD patients who use pressurized metered-dose inhalers. Because many existing VHCs are bulky and inconvenient to carry, this project uses SolidWorks-based CAD and iterative prototyping to create a mouthpiece-only chamber that can compress for storage in a small pouch while maintaining a continuous airflow path and stable interfaces.
The main prototype was fabricated primarily through 3D printing with flexible filament for the chamber body and rigid end caps, with design iterations focused on improving portability and usability.