This post was written by Emma Bateman as part of the InnoHub blog series focused on how Mines students have used InnoHub resources to bring their projects to life.

“Apparently PLA plastic melts when left in a hot car!”

Introduction

Hi! We’re Emma Bateman and Renee Sobania! I (Emma) am a senior at the Colorado School of
Mines studying design engineering, and Renee is a junior at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison majoring in biomedical engineering. During my time at Mines, I developed
a concept for a drug-eluting tampon that uses hydrogel technology to help alleviate menstrual
cramps. I pitched the idea to Dr. Melissa Krebs, a professor at Mines and an expert in hydrogels,
who generously sponsored us in her research lab through the SURF (Student Undergraduate
Research Fellowship) program this summer.

Inspiration | Process | Finished Product

Labriola has been essential to our project. One of the first things we printed was a custom stand
to elevate our test tubes above the UV lamp, which we use to cure the hydrogel. A hydrogel is a
water-swollen polymer network. It starts out as a liquid mixture, and when we add a
photoinitiator and expose it to UV light, it solidifies into a soft material.

One funny thing that happened: I left one of our printed stands in my car over the weekend…
and the legs warped! Since the stand was printed in PLA, a thermoplastic material, it softened in
the heat and lost its shape. This was a great reminder that material properties matter.

We also designed and printed a custom holder for tensile testing on a force gauge machine. This
allowed us to test the strength and elasticity of our hydrogel samples which is super important for
understanding how they’ll perform in real-world conditions

Conclusion

Working in the Labriola Innovation Hub gave us the freedom to prototype, fail, fix, and try
again. We’re excited to keep developing this project and grateful for the support of such an
awesome space and community