Development of a micro flow control system

This final year project ‘Development of a Micro Flow Control System’ records the method of using a syringe pump to test the transportation, squeezing out and transfer of one drop of ink through three 0.20mm internal diameter and 0.33mm outer diameter glass capillary tubes onto a plate. The set-up holds the three glass capillary tubes vertically with the ink reservoir positioned at the bottom. A vacuum was created at the bottom cell containing the ink reservoir and a tubing was used to connect the syringe and the set-up. A syringe pump was then used to precisely control the amount of pressure applied to push the column of ink in an upward direction. Last but not least, the plates will be lowered vertically using a slider mechanism controlled by a syringe when a drop of ink is expelled from the tip of the glass capillary tubes. Various inks consisting of different concentration of tween (0%, 0.1%, 0.3% and 0.5%) were used for the testing. In additional, two different types of plates were used for the transfer. One plate used is clean acrylic plate and the other is clean acrylic plate coated with PDMS. The results obtained from the experiments conducted showed that controlling the pressure applied with a syringe pump is able to first transport the column of the ink to the tip of the glass capillary tube. It is also possible for one tube having the ink at its tip to wait for the other two columns of inks to reach their tips before the expulsion of one drop of ink. A higher count for smaller sized droplets transfer is achieved when using the acrylic plate coated with PDMS. The most uniform and small sized droplets are achieved in the case of 0% tween for droplets transferred to acrylic plate coated with PDMS.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering