Micromachines (Oct 2020)

Characterization of Soft Tooling Photopolymers and Processes for Micromixing Devices with Variable Cross-Section

  • J. Israel Martínez-López,
  • Héctor Andrés Betancourt Cervantes,
  • Luis Donaldo Cuevas Iturbe,
  • Elisa Vázquez,
  • Edisson A. Naula,
  • Alejandro Martínez López,
  • Héctor R. Siller,
  • Christian Mendoza-Buenrostro,
  • Ciro A. Rodríguez

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/mi11110970
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 11
p. 970

Abstract

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In this paper, we characterized an assortment of photopolymers and stereolithography processes to produce 3D-printed molds and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) castings of micromixing devices. Once materials and processes were screened, the validation of the soft tooling approach in microfluidic devices was carried out through a case study. An asymmetric split-and-recombine device with different cross-sections was manufactured and tested under different regime conditions (10 Re < 70). Mixing performances between 3% and 96% were obtained depending on the flow regime and the pitch-to-depth ratio. The study shows that 3D-printed soft tooling can provide other benefits such as multiple cross-sections and other potential layouts on a single mold.

Keywords