3D printed Peristaltic Pump

[cropwell]

I took an interest in the thread about mist cooling and I thought that a stepper driven pump, controlled by an Arduino, together with a solenoid operated air valve could give a system that would dispense air, liquid or a mist (with control of the liquid content) using a mister spray as in pic 4



The easiest pump to control liquid flow would be a peristaltic type, so I set about making one with my 3D printer. Most of the other hardware I needed, I had already (Nema23 stepper motor, Parker Digiplan PK2 drive, bearings, nuts and bolts), I just needed some flexible silicone tubing and though I only needed a foot of it, 5 metres of 8x6mm tube cost £6.29 from China, so I bought it.



The bits were drawn in Retchup and sliced with Makerbot. I printed in ABS with 100% infill to give it strength. There were several revisions, in order to get the pump working better and I ended up putting 'tyres' on the bearings to spread the pressure across the width of the tube.



I am pleased with the result as it pumps strongly, self primes and has no back flow (though you can run it backwards easily enough with a stepper).

The last picture is two tubes joined with '5secondFIX', it works well ! It cost $4.50 from China (or you can buy the JML equivalent for £9.99).

If anyone is interested, I can post the stl files and a parts list. AND I have lots of the silicone tube left over.

Cheers and goodnight (or more accurately - Good Morning !)

Rob

[Clive S]

Very nice project Rob Its the type of pump they use to pump your'e blood around Yes it would be good to put the parts list up. A nema 17 would be big enough I would think.
Have you done the code to meter the liquid ?

[johnsattuk]

[Leadhead]

Timely project Rob. Very interesting. Have most of the hardware also. Would be most grateful for .stl files and details of the Arduino setup.
Can it achieve enough air pressure to move wood dust or ally swarf?
Thanks for the posting.

[Clive S]

Ah yes I remember reading the post on that John a link to it would be good. very prof. looking

[cropwell]

Very nice project Rob Its the type of pump they use to pump your'e blood around Yes it would be good to put the parts list up. A nema 17 would be big enough I would think.
Have you done the code to meter the liquid ?

I haven't done the code yet. The first was to get the pump working.

I only used a nema23 'cos I have 4 Astrosyn MY103H702 motors (not much good for anything!) sitting in a box in a cupboard, together with 3 Parker Digiplan PK2's and a PK3.

It took a lot of furtling to get the internal dimensions of the pump right. About 3 incarnations of the pump body and 4 of the rotor. The tyres (5 or 6 variations !) were a late addition as the bearings were too narrow to squash the tube efficiently (loss of pressure and backflow, also wouldn't self-prime). The 5mm holes had to be drilled out to 5.5 and the rotor fitted to the shaft by filing out and then softening the plastic with an Iroda miniature heat gun, before pushing it on to the shaft. It makes a nice fit though and doesn't need a grub screw.

The bearings are 3x10x4 (Inside hole, Outer diameter, Thickness) and the stub axles are M3 stainless hex button heads with 12mm of thread length, clamped down with a nut to the rotor and another to hold the bearing. All stuff I had in my small bits collection.

Here's a dropbox link to the stl files -
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wenlkj8lj...gyh7ICoTa?dl=0


Cheers,

Rob

[cropwell]

Timely project Rob. Very interesting. Have most of the hardware also. Would be most grateful for .stl files and details of the Arduino setup.
Can it achieve enough air pressure to move wood dust or ally swarf?
Thanks for the posting.

I only intend to pump liquid with PeriPump. I can get quite a good flow at a controllable rate (which is good when you get older !), The air will be provided from the compressor and solenoid controlled, so only full pressure and pulsed, although it might need a flow restrictor.

It is all at the playing about stage.

Cheers,

Rob