Low-Cost, Fully 3D-Printed, Magnetically Actuated, Miniature Valve-Less Liquid Pumps

We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of the first fully 3D-printed, multi-material, magnetically driven, valve-less miniature liquid pumps in the literature. Extending our work on 3D-printed liquid pumps [1] and magnetic actuators [2], the new devices are driven by a rotating magnet and employ valve-less diffusers [3]. Our leak-tight, miniature liquid pumps are microfabricated using 150 $\mu$ m layers in pure Nylon 12 and NdFeB-embedded Nylon 12 via fused filament fabrication (FFF) [4] –an inexpensive additive manufacturing method for thermoplastics capable of monolithically creating multi-material objects. The fabrication of the pumps employs a novel multi-material printing process that monolithically creates all features with <13 $\mu$ m in-plane misalignment. The new pumps occupy 4.3X less volume than our FFF printed embedded magnet pumps, while sustaining 20% larger flow rates and actuating 14X faster [1].