Characterization of Soft Tooling Photopolymers and Processes for Micromixing Devices with Variable Cross-Section

• Main Authors: J. Israel Martínez-López, Héctor Andrés Betancourt Cervantes, Luis Donaldo Cuevas Iturbe, Elisa Vázquez, Edisson A. Naula, Alejandro Martínez López, Héctor R. Siller, Christian Mendoza-Buenrostro, Ciro A. Rodríguez
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-10-01
• Series: Micromachines
• Subjects: micromixers; split-and-recombine; additive manufacturing; surface metrology; asymmetric split-and-recombine (ASAR); stereolithography
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/11/970
• ISSN: 2072-666X

In this paper, we characterized an assortment of photopolymers and stereolithography processes to produce 3D-printed molds and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) castings of micromixing devices. Once materials and processes were screened, the validation of the soft tooling approach in microfluidic devices was carried out through a case study. An asymmetric split-and-recombine device with different cross-sections was manufactured and tested under different regime conditions (10 < <i>Re</i> < 70). Mixing performances between 3% and 96% were obtained depending on the flow regime and the pitch-to-depth ratio. The study shows that 3D-printed soft tooling can provide other benefits such as multiple cross-sections and other potential layouts on a single mold.