Hi everybody,
I have to print a microlfuidic manifold which has lots of long (up to 15mm) small channels with many bends (min radius 1.5 mm). I would like the final channel diameter to be in the range of 0.8-1.0 mm.
I have seen some similar posts around but could not determine whether it is a feasible part to print and would also like to ask for some advice for setting it up correctly.
Material: standard clear reasin
Printer: form2
Thanks.
Best regards,
DP
Other than the possibly challenging orientation process (keeping those channels printable without internal supports) and the need to thoroughly flush each channel with IPA before post-curing (maybe with a syringe or something similar), I don’t see too many problems, though I never tried such a part.
Print in such a way that most channels are close to perpendicular to the build platform, with a lo priority on the more accessible ones which you can always drill afterwards. I think it’ll work fin but as stated before you’ll have to thoroughly clean the channels with IPA before curing.
Thanks everyone.
In fact, my fear was due to the fact that is almost impossible to have the correct orientation, as the channels are diverging and twisting in many directions. One last thing I would like to ask, in order to have, say, a 1 mm channel should I use an oversized diameter (say 1.2mm) or can I stick with the nominal dimensions?
Best regards
I’m having trouble flushing the resin out of my ø1 mm channels in “Tough” resin.
Viscous friction makes it hard to pump IPA in there.
For now, the part is bathing in IPA in hope it will dissolve…
At first, with my syringe, I just splashed IPA all over because the end was too narrow to fit on my channel’s end pipe.
I managed to widen my syringe’s end and then could pump IPA inside.
That worked like a charm !
I think that the rule here should be : make sure you can fit a syringe in a water-tight way on the end of your channels.
Cool print. I always have trouble with clogged channels despite printing perpendicular and at 10 degrees angle. What was the orientation that you used?
that’s pretty slick. We had a multi-channel manifold printed in ‘clear’ and then later on I tried to re-print in Surgical Guide, because they wanted to run real epithelial cells through the channels. I can’t seem to locate pictures though. I was very satisfied on the print quality. It did require blowing a lot of resin out of the channels before final cure.
