Today, the group visited the machine shop at the Hess Laboratory to see what kind of work they could potentially do there. Since this shop mostly deals with metals, it may not be an idea place to construct an electrospinning device (metals are conductive so the device itself should not conduct electricity). However they do work with plastics such as acrylic, so that is an option.
After being given we given a short tour of the shop, the group was led to the scrap-room. There they saw plenty of materials that, although not necessarily suitable for this project, provided some inspiration as to how the body of the device could be constructed. There were plastic tubes which suggested the shape of a barrel (the long end of the electrospinning device) and metal sheets which could be used as collector plates.
The next steps will be to obtain a high voltage power supply and a syringe pump. The syringe pump would have to be small enough to fit inside the device, so one might have to be built rather than bought.
Update: In the design proposal it was mentioned that the device would run on battery power. After careful consideration it was concluded that the more practical option would be a power supply which would be plugged into an outlet and provide high voltage to the device.
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