Study of the Pulse of Peristaltic Pumps for Use in 3D Extrusion Bioprinting

Abstract

Peristaltic pumps are used in healthcare for their ability to aseptically displace various fluids, including medium-density gels and suspended solids. However, they have the undesirable characteristic of pulsing at their output. Three-dimensional printing is becoming a reality in tissue engineering, and it generally uses syringes to extrude hydrogels. One of the problems to be solved is the microdosing of biomaterials or bioinks when it is necessary to print large volumes. The use of peristaltic pumps in bioprinting is desirable as it does not limit the volume to the contents of a syringe while achieving dosage control. A peristaltic pump was designed and implemented to avoid pulsation errors and microliter dosing while allowing a large amount of fluid displacement. Two pumps with equal displacement were built. The first uses the conventional profile and is the baseline for comparisons, while the second presents the profile studied and proposed. The concepts demonstrated by Bernoulli were used, fixing the height of a column of water, while the two pumps provide flow to the system asynchronously, allowing the reading of pressure as a function of the speed variation created by the pulsation of each pump. An approximately 100 times reduction in pulsation was observed during fluid displacement with the variance reduced from 2.64 to 0.025 s 2 . The two pumps were also installed on a modified Ultimaker FDM 3D printer, and a standard for comparison was printed using a water-based hydrogel, corn starch, and corn-derived triglyceride, showing that the proposed pump improves the deposition quality of the material. Three-dimensional prints, tubes 20 mm in diameter by 8 mm in height and 0.7 mm in wall width, were also produced. Videos obtained show that the first pump was not able to print more than 4 mm in height, while the second prints the model with high quality and without deficiency. The results show that the new pump profile is able to provide a sufficiently constant volume for three-dimensional printing with excellent deposition control, building a simple object but difficult to obtain for a common peristaltic pump.

Tailoring 3D printed cellulose acetate properties produced via direct ink writing: Densification through over‐extrusion and evaporation rate control

“…Usually, the printing material is stored inside contused volumes such as syringes that are then pressed by a linear actuator. This solution allows only small volumes to be printed or makes it necessary to interrupt the process for the reservoir refill 29 . A versatile extruding system, independent form the printing volume, is obtainable by replacing the linear actuator with a volumetric pump, such as a peristaltic pump.…”

“… There will be multiple back‐flow pulses equal to the number of rollers for each complete revolution of the rotor, and the frequency is provided by the number of rollers multiplied by the rotor angular velocity, given by Although we did not record any major deviation from the nominal dimensions of our samples, the pulsating flow rate is a limitation to keep in mind when printing components (especially small ones) requiring extreme dimensional accuracy. For a more detailed analysis of the performance of peristaltic pumps, we address the reader to some recent articles 29–32 …”

“…This solution allows only small volumes to be printed or makes it necessary to interrupt the process for the reservoir refill. 29 A versatile extruding system, independent form the printing volume, is obtainable by replacing the linear actuator with a volumetric pump, such as a peristaltic pump. The design of the pump used in our experimental campaign is reported in Figure 1A.…”

Advancements of 3D bioprinting in regenerative medicine: Exploring cell sources for organ fabrication

“…Extrusion-based bioprinting has gained widespread popularity as a versatile and straightforward 3D-bioprinting technique, capable of creating stable structures [ [26] , [27] , [28] ]. This strategy involves the controlled ejection of bioinks from nozzles, which are subsequently cured and stacked layer by layer on the printing plane to build a predefined 3D construct ( Fig.…”