Medical Design Briefs - February 2022 - 26

DIY Kits Enable Users to Build Their Own Peristaltic
Pumps for Microfluidics
Users can download the
design files to 3D print and
assemble a customizable
peristaltic pump.
Singapore University of
Technology and Design
Singapore
The development of microfluidic systems
for lab-on-a-chip (LoC) and organon-a-chip
(OoC) applications require
precise fluid flow control. Typically, onchip
flows are controlled by integrating
a microfluidic chip with external pumps
that deliver fluid flow at the microscale
(typically on the order of mL/min)
through the microchannels. To this end,
commercially available flow devices such
as extrusion syringe pumps, peristaltic
pumps, and pneumatic pumps have
been widely used.
Unfortunately, existing pumps
suitable
for microfluidic applications are
usually bulky and costly. For example,
pressure-controlled flow systems cost as
much as $10,000,
whereas
syringe
pumps and peristaltic pumps cost hundreds
to thousands of dollars. Pumps
with a small footprint are preferred for
LoC and OoC applications. While miniature
pumps are commercially available,
they require proprietary and expensive
control systems (over $1000). More
importantly, these commercially available
pumps are not amenable to customization.
However, because each
experiment has unique requirements
such as flowrate, working environment,
and available space, rapid customization
of the instrument would benefit users.
To make microfluidic pumps more
accessible to the scientific community,
researchers from the Singapore Uni -
versity
of Technology
and
Design
(SUTD) Soft Fluidics Lab have developed
a highly customizable, 3D printed
peristaltic pump kit, where users can
download the design files, 3D print, and
assemble their do-it-yourself (DIY) peristaltic
pump.
" 3D printers have become more and
more affordable, and they are a commodity
that is found in most scientific laboratories
today. With the advancement of 3D
printing technologies, scientists no
longer have to rely on manufacturers to
manufacture components; they can
design and print them themselves at an
affordable cost. We are slowly observing
the democratization of manufacturing by
3D printing technology, " says Assoc. Prof.
Michinao Hashimoto, the project's principal
investigator from SUTD.
The peristaltic pump is powered and
controlled by Arduino, an open-source
electronics platform. " With the introduction
of Arduino, precise control of
motors is becoming accessible to nonexperts.
These open-source electronic
platforms are empowering scientists with
little background in electronics and programming
to build complex scientific
instrumentations, " explains lead author
Terry Ching, a joint graduate student
with SUTD and National University of
Singapore (NUS).
By combining 3D printed parts with
open-source electronic prototyping platforms,
the team built a peristaltic pump
comparable to commercially available
options at a fraction of the cost, an estimated
$50 per pump. The assembled
pumps offered a wide range of flowrate
for microfluidic users (0.02-727.3
μL/min). The pump also has a small footprint
of around 20 × 50 × 28 mm, which
can be placed in a cell incubator. Notably,
the pump is designed in the form of a kit,
allowing end-users to customize the setup
according to their preference.
" We believe that a kit has the intrinsic
ability to evoke the culture of hacking
and tinkering. Hopefully, this can in
turn inspire the scientific community to
develop more open-source scientific
infrastructure, " says Hashimoto.
Computer-aided design (CAD) files with
detailed instructions to fabricate the pump
are found in the team's paper, " Highly-customisable
3D-printed peristaltic pump kit, "
published in HardwareX. This research
was conducted in collaboration with the
research groups of Prof. Yi-Chin Toh
(Queensland University of Technology),
Assoc. Prof. Javier Fernandez (SUTD), and
Prof. Chwee Teck Lim (National University
of Singapore).
For more information, visit https://
people.sutd.edu.sg.
To make microfluidic pumps more accessible to the scientific community, SUTD researchers developed a highly customizable, 3D printed peristaltic pump
kit. Users can download the design files, 3D print, and assemble the do-it-yourself peristaltic pump. (Credit: SUTD)
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Medical Design Briefs, February 2022

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