Tech Briefs Magazine - January 2023 - 24

Mechanical &
Fluid Systems
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, " said Associate
Professor Michinao Hashimoto,
the project's principal investigator.
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 non-experts.
These open-source electronic
platforms are empowering scientists with
little background in electronics and programming
to build complex scientific
instrumentations, " explained 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
Handheld Metal Tube Straightener
Tool removes bends from challenging tube-ends.
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
R
esearchers at NASA Johnson Space
Center have developed the Handheld
Metal Tube Straightener designed to remove
bends within 3.5 inches of a tube
end. The tool straightens thin, malleable
4-mm metal tubes like those used for fuel,
pneumatic or hydraulic pressurized lines.
Commercially available tube straighteners
use rollers to straighten long metal
tubing, but the spacing of the rollers typically
prevent or complicate bend-removal
near the end of the tube and can also
leave linear scratches on the straightened
area. The handheld tube straightener can
remove small and large bends near and at
the tip of a tube enabling it to be swaged
into any commercial swage fitting.
The Handheld Metal Tube Straightener
is built with a stationary anvil and a dynamic
hammer attached to a knob/lead
screw. The extension and retraction of
the hammer is manually operated by the
knob. The tube straightener contains an
oval opening that serves as an insertion
point for the to-be-straightened tube.
Once the tube is inserted, the hammer
can be repetitively clamped and unclamped
while progressively inserting
the tube until it passes through the tools
built-in " GO " gauge, which is a tolerance
inspection device. After the tube passes
through the GO gauge it appears in a
GO window indicating that the proper
length of tube has been straightened.
The operation of the tube straightener
results in the straightening of a tubes
first 3.5 inches, including the tip.
The device is not reliant on external
power source, does not leave scratches
on tube, allows users to repurpose scrap
tubes, and its design may be scaled to
manipulate different tube diameters. It
has applications in aerospace, automotive,
industrial, instrumentation, laboratories,
and manufacturing.
NASA is actively seeking licensees to
commercialize this technology. Please
contact NASA's Licensing Concierge at
Agency-Patent-Licensing@mail.nasa.gov
or call at 202-358-7432 to initiate licensing
discussions. For more information,
visit https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/
MSC-TOPS-107.
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, "
said Hashimoto.
For more information, contact Warren
C. Ruder; warrenr@pitt.edu.
NASA's Handheld Metal Tube Straightener allows users to repurpose scrap tubes. (Image: NASA)
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24
The Handheld Metal Tube Straightener is built
with a stationary anvil and a dynamic hammer
attached to a knob/lead screw. (Image: NASA)
Tech Briefs, January 2023

https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/MSC-TOPS-107 https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/MSC-TOPS-107 http://www.techbriefs.com

Tech Briefs Magazine - January 2023

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