Taguchi Method for Investigation of Ultrasonication-Assisted Dissolution of Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) Rod Enclosed Within Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Bulk

A fully transparent and three-dimensional vascular model can be created by using consumer 3D printer to fabricate polymeric molds, casting with Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) from printed molds, and dissolution of molds with solvents. Unfortunately, the narrowness of channels makes removal of molds enclosed within the PDMS bulk very challenging. Ultrasonication has been used to accelerate the dissolution of polymeric molds through the effects of cavitation phenomenon, Taguchi method was used to study the most and least influential factor to the overall dissolution process. Experiment results show that: (1) ultrasonication can penetrate the PDMS bulk and improve the dissolution process of ABS rod enclosed in a PDMS bulk; (2) the volume of the PDMS device (E) has the largest influence while the ultrasonication time (B) has the least influence; (3) with those optimized parameters, a 3D and transparent vascular model with two curly channels was successfully demonstrated.