The hottest way to reduce body size and value 3D p

Reducing body size and reducing value 3D printing accelerates the take-off of the microfluidic industry

since 3D printing was involved in production, microfluidic chips have shown a trend of smaller and smaller size and lower price, which will accelerate the take-off of the industry. It can be predicted that 3D printing will occupy an increasingly important position in the field of microfluidic chip manufacturing, and even become the mainstream

microfluidic is a young technology, which may be unfamiliar to most people, but it has become famous in the academic world. Microfluidic technology, which integrates the knowledge of many disciplines, such as chemistry, biology, materials science, medicine and so on, is actually a chip. Small microfluidic chips can play an important role in drug screening, toxicity testing, pathological research, disease diagnosis and other fields

however, the traditional manufacturing process of microfluidic chips is labor-intensive, and the production efficiency is difficult to meet the large-scale needs of laboratories, which is not conducive to the rapid upgrading of products. How can a promising emerging technology be bound by manufacturing process problems at the initial stage? To this end, industry insiders gathered their wisdom. Judging from the trend in recent years, they all placed their hopes on 3D printing. Because the advantages of this technology are exactly what is needed for the improvement of microfluidic chip production

in 2014, researchers at Zhejiang University developed microfluidic paper chips, in which 3D printing technology was used. They use open source 3D printers to make chips, so as to achieve the goal of low cost, large batch and high speed

of course, for the whole microfluidic industry with broad prospects, using open source 3D printers to manufacture chips is only a temporary plan. After witnessing the powerful chip production capacity of 3D printing, the industry began to focus on the research and development of professional equipment. In 2016, the British company dolomite launched the world's first microfluidic chip 3D printer fluidicfactory, which realized the 3D printing production of fluid sealing devices for the first time

at the same time, attempts to make microfluidic chips using ordinary 3D printers continue. In June this year, the University of Connecticut produced a microfluidic chip with sla3d printer, which researchers call "lab on chip". By placing DNA, liver microsomes and other substances on the chip and inputting nicotine, researchers have successfully proved that e-cigarettes, like ordinary cigarettes, are difficult to sort and will damage DNA and cause cancer. The cost of producing such a chip with a 3D printer is only $0.8

in addition to developing professional microfluidic chip 3D printing equipment, some people in the industry are also exploring new 3D printing materials. Generally speaking, wechat also has some new downstream capacity in South Korea and China, which plans to put into operation this year. Flow control chips are mainly made of glass, plastic or resin. In August this year, the Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain and the school enterprise cooperation of 3D printing company lithoz found a new raw material for microfluidic chips - ceramics. Compared with glass and plastic, ceramics are more heat-resistant and have higher strength, and its one-time molding characteristics also provide a relatively simple manufacturing process for more complex devices

in the past August, a new achievement was born at Brigham Young University in the United States: researchers at the University have created the world's smallest microfluidic chip that can improve 3D printing and eliminate the hidden danger of white pollution caused by plastic packaging materials, which can be used in a size less than 100 microns. In order to make this chip with extremely high technical requirements, the scientific research team started from designing a special 3D printer. Therefore, while making chips, they also created high-resolution 3D printing equipment using digital light processing stereo lithography technology. This result may first be used in the related research of preterm birth prediction

in general, since 3D printing was involved in production, microfluidic chips have shown a trend of becoming smaller and cheaper. The shrinking size and lower value of chips are just what the industry is happy to see, which will accelerate the take-off of the industry. It can be predicted that 3D printing will occupy an increasingly important position in the field of microfluidic chip manufacturing, and even become the mainstream. Microfluidic chips are expected to become another contribution of 3D printing technology to the biomedical industry besides the production of active tissues and organs