Field Ready-Nebula Gel IV Blood & Fluid Warmer

this is the same vacuum bag but now the heater is on the outside of the gel instead of the inside of the bag, this should give more even heating , we shall see! This is still a two 30 watt heater configuration. I did a 22 minute video for this one I will link. It did take longer to warm up at about 20 minutes , but the heat was more even. The gel was pre warmed up so it is not a fair comparison to test one so I will need to run this one again.  The next setup I think I will run two heaters on each side in parallel so they get 15 watts each and spread out the warming effect.

I ran the first test, this was mostly to verify I could warm the blood bag sufficiently. I have a single layer of water beads with the excess water vacuum pumped out. This impedes heat transfer but maximizes the heat retention of the gel. I did find that the blood would warm to 100 plus degrees in 15 minutes BUT I was concerned about hot spots so I tried swapping the orientation so that the heater is on the outside.

I did an 18 minute video , getting to 100 within 15 minutes was a success but I want the hearing to be more even if possible.

This is the first bag, so I will still be trying out various ways to construct it. This first try I am pulling a length off the roll , sealing each end first then spot welding it to better maintain a more uniform shape. I have found this end up with far room much material and I ended up with air in the system which is something I want to avoid. I would like to reduce the profile to a single layer of water beads and then fill the voids completely  with water.

I did not use a thermometer for this, I just wanted to get an initial idea of how the gel behaves when being heated.

notes to keep in your mind: 

There are three goals, First is that heat needs to spread so the warming effects on the iv bag are as even as possible. Second, The sleeve needs to retain more heat for 30-45 minutes than needed to keep a 1000 cc IV bag warm at 100 degrees F. Lastly the gel bead to water ratio needs to be as such that it does not cause heat and time to be wasted warming the thermal mass before it can be used with the IV bag.

Pros- 

-My initial hypothesis that using gel in a cover would both retain heat and reduce the transfer was clearly correct. However it worked much batter than expected which is problematic. ( more on that later)

-Water beads are cheaper and easier that making other gels from scratch

-the size of the beads can be broken down in a blender if needed, but I think that will be too much heat flow restriction.

-The two 30 watt heaters were able to get all the fluids up to temperature and beyond in about 15 minutes, so I feel good about using them in a bag heater.

Cons- A maximum amount of water beads in a volume with the rest filled with water certainly works excellent for heat retention however it negates heat transfer so much that the volume does not heat evenly. That being said I was testing a volume of water beads about 2 liters, which no doubt if more than twice what I will actually end up using in the gel sleeve prototype.

Adjustments- I need to do another heat transfer capability test that is more realistic using the actual material I intend to use for the bag and do another test.

I had my Mentor session with Field Ready and I came back with a couple of good feedback points,  Test your work and setup your product page and documentation to specifically answer all the questions a judge has to ask themselves when evaluating the project.

OK so a few parts came in

Water Beads

STC1000 110v and a 24 volt version

110/220v to 24v DC adapter

4 x 30 watt film heater modules

18 batteries

2 x 8 battery holders

11" x 16" of semi clear vacuum bag film roll

silicon sealant

Still need some blue food coloring to tint the gel, it is not functional but I would rather it be a blue or purple color to go along with the theme like in the pictures where I got the name Nebula.

So after some research, I found that the cheapest possible way to create a gel thermal mass for both holding heat and slowly transferring it to an IV bag, ( slower than just liquid water so it does not cool too quickly) There is a material was originally developed to control absorption and release of water in soil. Not too dry and not too wet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyacrylamide

Gel Polymerization is the fastest way to create a Gel from distilled water, why distilled? We we don't want anything funky growing in it after the water has been added to the gel material. This material is very cheap and I believe is the easiest and fastest way to create a thermal mass gel for stability and general heat retention.

Please Like and Follow as this will dramatically effect my ability to make this project better and more practical as an actual field ready product. Thank You!

Here is Gel material plus water filling the spaces between the water beads. During testing we can use the level of water added to fully saturated water beads to adjust the thermal transfer rate and heat retention.

This is the same water polymer with no water added to fully saturated beads. Water beads without the water filling the space significantly reduces the rate at which heat is lost from the gel mass in the sealed box.

Please Like and Follow as this will dramatically effect my ability to make this project better and more practical as an actual field ready product. Thank You!

https://www.boundtree.com/IV-Drug-Delivery/IV-Warmers/Thermal-Angel-Standard-Emergency-Pack/p/TA-SEP

$1659 and the warmer is one time use, so if you need to administer another bag you burn another thermal angel unit. also the power supply only powers one thermal angel at a time for this price. However it does regulate the fluids meaning once heated it maintains that temp.

Iv Fluid bag warmer, it DOES warm the bags, however as soon as they leave the heater the temp is dropping and no longer regulated. Essentially it is a pelican case with 12v heater built in, no battery options or 110 v on this one.  This costs $859

https://www.boundtree.com/IV-Drug-Delivery/IV-Warmers/PAK2-P-IV-Fluid-Warmer-with-12V-DC-Cord-Set/p/1870-11216

I think we can do better :)

Ok, SO I put in a order for parts

AA 16 rechargeable batteries

x4 polyimide foil 30 watt heater film pads

2x 8 cell battery holders

1 temp controller

1 ardiuno set kindly provided for free from Elegoo

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