3D PolyJet Printed Microfluidic Mixer

Mixing is one of the most important challenges in microfuidic systems. Many applications in fields ranging from biomedical engineering to food analysis and chemical synthesis rely on fast and homogeneous mixing at the microscale level. Nevertheless, due to the low Raynolds number associate with microchannels, the flow in microfluidic devices is laminar. Development of fast, inexpensive and reliable micromixers is indispensable, however most of microfluidic components are still produced using traditional soft lithography and molding technologies, which do not allow for fully three dimensional structures, high production throughputs and fast point of care manufacturing. An increasing interest in 3D printing has led various research groups to investigate the feasibility of layer by layer manufacturing for microfluidics. 3D printing potentially permits to fabricate complex shapes in a single production step, while maintaining low costs and high design flexibility. Moreover, 3D printing allows for rapid prototyping and shifting manufacturing directly to the nal user. A concept of a new completely 3D printed active micromixer is presented and investigated. Three different devices are manufactured by PolyJet technology, which is capable of producing parts ranging from transparent plastic to biocompatible materials. Different designs are presented to show the high flexibility of 3D printing and its versatility in microfluidics. Homogeneous mixing is demonstrated for all the different mixers, along with the main advantages of the selected technology.