On open thursday, we had a request to make a nasal dilator. The nasal dilator was for an elderly man who had broken his nose and now he had difficulty breathing through one nostril because that nostril was blocked. To fix it, he needed a device which would open and keep it that way.

I did a quick google search and see that there are these types of nasal dilators in the market.

nasal dilator market

The elderly man, his son, Henk and I sat down and talked about the requirements, went over the examples on the market and decided on what to make. I modelled the first prototype in Rhinoceros and 3d printed it with our Prusa i3MK3S with PLA filament.

prototype1

Printed model

Trying on the prototype, we discussed what needs to go, what was good. The nose clip was found to be unnecessary and the overall length was too long. However, the thicknesses were a fit. I modelled the new prototype and Henk ordered TPE (thermoplastic elastomer) filament. TPU is a rubberlike semi-flexible filament that is also skin safe. We will print Prototype 2 next Thursday with this material.

prototyp21