Characterization of soft tooling photopolymers and processes for micromixing devices with variable cross-section

Abstract

In this paper, we characterized an assortment of photopolymers and stereolithography processes to produce 3D-printed molds and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) castings of micromixing devices. Once materials and processes were screened, the validation of the soft tooling approach in microfluidic devices was carried out through a case study. An asymmetric split-and-recombine device with different cross-sections was manufactured and tested under different regime conditions (10 < Re < 70). Mixing performances between 3% and 96% were obtained depending on the flow regime and the pitch-to-depth ratio. The study shows that 3D-printed soft tooling can provide other benefits such as multiple cross-sections and other potential layouts on a single mold.