{"id":24042,"date":"2020-09-10T16:30:14","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T16:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=24042"},"modified":"2020-09-10T17:24:51","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T17:24:51","slug":"mit-magnetic-pump-100920206","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/mit-magnetic-pump-100920206\/","title":{"rendered":"MIT researchers 3D print miniature magnetic multi-material pump"},"content":{"rendered":"

A research team at MIT\u2019s Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) has designed a 3D printed\u00a0diaphragm\u00a0pump that is\u00a0operated magnetically. Portable and effective, the new pump\u00a0demonstrates the potential of additively manufactured devices. The scientists behind the project hope\u00a0that this proof-of-principle pump will inspire others to explore – and benefit from – the \u00a0additive manufacturing<\/a> techniques as opposed to the conventional mass-production methods.<\/p>\n

What exactly is\u00a0a diaphragm pump? Sometimes referred to as a membrane pump, it is a positive displacement pump that is typically used to transfer liquids. Luis Fernando Vel\u00e1squez-Garc\u00eda, principal research scientist at MIT, explains that such pump could be used in applications \u201cfrom fuel cells to power generation to heat exchangers\u201d that cool computer chips. The 3D printed pump\u00a0is only 1 centimeter in diameter; it took in total 75 minutes and\u00a0less than $3.89 to fabricate one unit. The device can move both liquids and gases using less power and experiencing less clogging than standard pumps of similar size. Interestingly, one of the pump designs was actually 3D printed monolithically (in one piece), for the first time.<\/p>\n

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All image credits: MIT Microsystems Technology Laboratories<\/p><\/div>\n

The miniature pumps were made in the form of cylinders crowned by a membrane. On top of the membrane is the fluid chamber, with two valveless ports at the top to attach tubes. As for the material, the researchers selected\u00a0Nylon<\/a> 12. In fact, there were two different designs developed. In the first design, a magnet is press-fitted into the structure of the enclosing piston. With the second monolithic pump, the researchers embedded Nylon 12\u00a0with neodymium magnet (NdFeB) microparticles to create the pump\u2019s magnetic core.<\/p>

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The properties of Nylon 12 make it a perfect structural material for this particular application as it can easily absorb large amounts of the magnetic particles, and is sturdy enough to hold still the NdFeB microparticles during the initial magnetization, which makes possible to create strong permanent magnets. According to\u00a0Vel\u00e1squez-Garc\u00eda, \u201cIn a softer material, the particles would wobble, resulting in no net magnetization of the magnetic composite<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0Since the 3D printed pump is magnetically driven, it is more portable than more traditional pneumatic pumps as they would typically\u00a0need to be physically coupled to an outside source of pressurized fluid.<\/p>\n

What do you think about the 3D printed magnetic pump developed by MIT? Let us know in a comment below or on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a> pages your comments. Don\u2019t forget to sign up for our free weekly Newsletter<\/a>, with all the latest news in 3D printing delivered straight to your inbox!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A research team at MIT\u2019s Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) has designed a 3D printed\u00a0diaphragm\u00a0pump that is\u00a0operated magnetically. Portable and effective, the new pump\u00a0demonstrates the potential of additively manufactured devices. The scientists behind the project hope\u00a0that this proof-of-principle pump will inspire…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6072,"featured_media":24043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6072"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24042"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24064,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24042\/revisions\/24064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}