3D Printed Multi-channel Peristaltic Pump with Active Droplet Generator for Lab-on-a-Chip Devices

This paper presents the development of a multi-channel peristaltic pump using 3D printing technology for active droplet generation. The fabricated peristaltic pump has two channels with 3 mm diameter to pump two different fluids simultaneously. Final assembly of the multi-channel peristaltic pump is 146 mm in length, 230 mm in width and 75 mm in height. Numerical studies are conducted using COMSOL Multiphysics software to study the droplet formation under the peristaltic motion. Experiments on droplet generation are carried out using in-house fabricated peristaltic pump and the droplet generator. From and the numerical simulations and the experiments, it was identified that the use of the peristaltic motion for the dispersed phase fluid is capable of forming droplets.