By Paul Marshall, CEO Rapid Fluidics Ltd.

Since Rapid Fluidics was founded there has been a substantial change in the way additive manufacturing has been perceived and adopted. 5 years ago additive manufacturing was still a relatively new and ‘high tech’ industry, with the perception being that anything could be made at the press of a button, but that the technology and materials were not useful for industrial applications, dismissing its use to hobbyists and research institutions.  Today additive manufacturing is a highly productive industry, with many companies adopting it for not only prototype parts but full-scale production using its benefits of creating complex customizable parts with less material wastage and shorter lead time. Collaboration between Academia, Industry, and Government has driven the use of additive manufacturing into the mainstream.  A few key benefits additive manufacturing brings are speed, and design flexibility with the ability to create three-dimensional geometric features. Improving designs to benefit from the ability to use these features allows for optimized material usage, production times, and repeatability.

We recently worked on a few really exciting microfluidic projects that demonstrate the agility and speed of 3D printing and its potential to drive innovation.  From just a picture and few details of an industrial manifold we were able to reverse engineer and print it overnight, enabling delivery of a new iteration in less than 24 hours.  3D printing has also impacted the medical and health fields, based on a request from a medical device company we were also able to create a hepatic anatomical model from just a CTa on The Cancer Imaging Archive, to be used for creating and testing new medical devices.  We also collaborate with other experts to create dynamic integrated systems for research and discovery, with these partners we created a custom solutions workflow that also included PCB integration for seamless electronic control and micropumps, bubble trap & mp-damper for smooth and reliable operation.  We continue to push the boundaries of microfluidic 3D Printing as it continues to advance rapidly, expanding applications and accelerating research and development across various fields.

Image credit: Bartels Mikrotechnik