Development of a monolithically 3D printed reciprocating piston pump for HPLC

Abstract

There has been much research in recent years aiming to make scientific instrumentation more accessible. An increase in accessibility has many benefits including reduced costs and expanded opportunities to learn about instrumentation. 3D printing of scientific instrumentation provides an option that is cheap and customizable. This study follows the development of a 3D-printed ball check valve to be implemented in a reciprocating piston pump such as one used for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The reciprocating piston pump is just one of several types of positive displacement pumps. Seven types of positive displacement pumps will be described, as well as some unexpected applications in the sciences or every day life. The valve designed in this study was designed using OpenSCAD and printed using a Prusa i3 MK2S 3D printer. Ball check valves with both a spherical and conical design were designed, and early qualitative tests point towards the conical design being desirable. Future work includes the design of a reciprocating piston, the implementation of the piston along with two check valves to create a complete reciprocating pump, and quantifying pressures achieved by the pump.