Open Source Medical Autoclave for Developing World
Channel: David Hartkop
Date: 2018-11-27

Maker David Hartkop showing his open autoclave project. The project addresses the humanitarian problem of access to medical instrument sterilizers. 

Nearly 3 billion people in the world live in areas with limited medical resources. Without medical instrument sterilizers, many life saving surgeries cannot be performed because the risk of infection is too great. 

The Open Autoclave is a small 85 Watt oven that is powered by 12 volts from a car cigarette lighter or from a solar panel. It has an Arduino microcontroller that monitors the internal temperature, and a timer that insures the heat-exposure is adequate to kill bacterial spores. The controller also provides a log of every cycle run for medical record keeping. 

Here's the full-length video that shows how to create it:
https://youtu.be/W22TMEIeg9I

To learn more, visit the project's website at the following address:
https://www.ideapropulsionsystems.com/idea-propulsion-systems/openautoclave

The book and Arduino software can also be downloaded directly from Github at this address: https://github.com/IdeaPropulsionSystems/OpenAutoclave