A normally-open, wide-range, proportionally controlled 3D-printed microvalve using a piezo stack microactuator
H. Kramer (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Gürhan Özkayar – Mentor (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
Murali K. Ghatkesar – Coach (TU Delft - Micro and Nano Engineering)
J.C. Lötters – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Precision and Microsystems Engineering)
H. Bazyar – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Engineering Thermodynamics)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Microvalves are useful components for several microfluidic applications in which they control the fluid flow in a microfluidic system. Most microvalves to date are made by using silicon micro-machining, which is a complex manufacturing process, or soft lithography using Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) which has a high gas permeability. Next to that most microvalves in literature have small actuation forces resulting in small pressure ranges and large leakages at low pressure levels. In this paper, a normally open microvalve which is fabricated by only using 3D printing techniques with a bio-compatible resin is presented, making it more easy and accessible to manufacture. The novelty is the integrated micro-channels, membrane and microfluidic connections in a single 3D printed piece. The utilized actuator is a commercially available piezo stack, which has a displacement of 34 µm at 150V. Due to its large actuation force the microvalve can modulate fluids from -600 to 600 mbar, with measured flow-rate levels between 0-90 µl/min and projected flow-rate levels between 0-410 µl/min. In fully closed state the leakage-rate of the microvalve is 1.67 µl/min at 600 mbar, with a static power consumption of 442.5 mW. Subsequently it is shown that after using higher clamping torques (> 0.7 Nm) the microvalve can operate leakage free up to 1.5 bar. Additionally a 3-to-1 fluid selector is designed using three microvalves, which can be integrated into a portable microfluidic platform for Organ-on-Chip (OoC) applications.