3D Printing to the Rescue: Shrinking Vacuum Pumps for Bigger Discoveries — The device would be a key |
MIT researchers have devised a way to 3D print a miniaturized peristaltic vacuum pump, which could be a key component of a portable mass spectrometer. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers
Their pump can create and maintain a vacuum that has an order of magnitude lower pressure than a so-called dry, rough pump, which doesn’t require liquid to create a vacuum and can operate at atmospheric pressure. The researchers’ unique design, which can be printed in one pass on a multimaterial 3D printer, prevents fluid or gas from leaking while minimizing heat from friction during the pumping process. This increases the lifetime of the device.
“We are talking about very inexpensive hardware that is also very capable,” says Luis Fernando Velásquez-García, a principal scientist in MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories and senior author of a paper describing the new pump. “With mass spectrometers, the 500-pound gorilla in the room has always been the issue of pumps. What we have shown here is groundbreaking, but it is only possible because it is 3D-printed.
While these pumps do create a vacuum, design problems have limited their use in mass spectrometers. The tube material redistributes when force is applied by the rollers, leading to gaps that cause leaks. This problem can be overcome by operating the pump rapidly, forcing the fluid through faster than it can leak out. But this causes excessive heat that damages the pump, and the gaps remain.
Using a multimaterial 3D printer, they printed the entire tube in one pass, which is important since postassembly can introduce defects that can cause leaks. To do this, they had to find a way to print the narrow, flexible tube vertically while preventing it from wobbling during the process. In the end, they created a lightweight structure that stabilizes the tube during printing but can be easily peeled off later without damaging the device.
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