Abstract
There is a niche in the pill splitting industry for a more efficient pill splitter. To fill this niche we explore various applications of 3-Point and 4-Point bending to pill splitting. All designs are 3D printed. Due to the elastic nature of PLA plastic, the reality that 3-Point bending may cause pills to fail in compression (as revealed by FEM analysis), and the difficulty in managing volume constraints in a 3-Point bending design, 4-Point bending is considered as a viable option for pill splitting. However, after testing and analysis, the 4-Point bending prototypes generated were able to break pills, but not split in half, which is unacceptable.
Document Type
Final Report
Class Name
Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences Independent Study
Date of Submission
12-23-2021
Recommended Citation
Sasser, Isaac; Brown, Andrew; and Lee, Minju, "Improved Pill Splitter: An Analysis of 3&4-Point Bending to Split Pills" (2021). Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Independent Study. 167.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/mems500/167