Evaluation of 3D-printed molds for fabrication of non-planar microchannels |
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| Authors: | Pravien Parthiban Sindhu Vijayan Patrick S Doyle Michinao Hashimoto |
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| Institution: | 1.Pillar of Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore, 487372;2.Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA;3.Digital Manufacturing and Design Centre, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore 487372, Singapore |
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| Abstract: | Replica obtained from micromolds patterned by simple photolithography has features with uniform heights, and attainable microchannels are thus quasi-two-dimensional. Recent progress in three-dimensional (3D) printing has enabled facile desktop fabrication of molds to replicate microchannels with varying heights. We investigated the replica obtained from four common techniques of 3D printing—fused deposition modeling, selective laser sintering, photo-polymer inkjet printing (PJ), and stereolithography (SL)—for the suitability to form microchannels in terms of the surface roughness inherent to the mechanism of 3D printing. There have been limited quantitative studies that focused on the surface roughness of a 3D-printed mold with different methods of 3D printing. We discussed that the surface roughness of the molds affected (1) transparency of the replica and (2) delamination pressure of poly(dimethylsiloxane) replica bonded to flat glass substrates. Thereafter, we quantified the accuracy of replication from 3D-printed molds by comparing the dimensions of the replicated parts to the designed dimensions and tested the ability to fabricate closely spaced microchannels. This study suggested that molds printed by PJ and SL printers were suitable for replica molding to fabricate microchannels with varying heights. The insight from this study shall be useful to fabricate 3D microchannels with controlled 3D patterns of flows guided by the geometry of the microchannels. |
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