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