cHANNELS

Shapes

Channel Shapes
  • Full Round - Preferred channel shape
    • - Lowest frictional resistance to flow.
      - Bonds best. Great force translation thru 2 arches
      - Full fluid swept volume; No particle entrapment points
      - Better surface finish through ball endmill tooling
      - Best aesthetic appeal
      - Smoothest transitions
      - Better cross section consistency through bonding.
      - Best choice for liquid fluid control
      - Insignificant additional cost for 2 sided machining
  • Square
    • - Used for applications where imaging of the fluid is desired, such as cell sorting
      - Rectangle or square possible.
      - Commonly used in pneumatics
  • D-Shape, U-Shape, Half-Round
    • - Better flow characteristics than square channels. Not as good as full round.

Size

  • Minimum
    • - We can machine channels down to .002” (50 microns).
      - We can bond channels down to .004” (100 microns).
  • Typical
    • - Most channels we make are between .02” and .090” (0.5-2 mm).
  • Microfluidic
    • - We can make square channels down to .004” (100 microns).

Finish

32 micro-inch RA (0.8 micro-meter RA) or better.

We always polish channels for smoothest possible finish.

Tolerances

Size: ±.005” (125 microns)

Bond alignment: ±.004” (100 microns)

Intersections

Drilled-Drilled: this intersection is created when two drilled holes meet. It is made with a 135° drill bit where the tip of one is drilled until it is .005” (125 microns) from the outside edge of the other hole. There are small pockets in the corner however they have shallow enough angles for material to not get stuck in. This can be made to be a full round intersection however it will cost more money as it needs to be done with a secondary drill

Drill-Drill

Full round-Drilled: this intersection is created when a full round channel is milled out and bonded together and a hole is drilled connecting to one end of the channel.

Full-Drill

Half round-Drilled 1: this intersection is created when a half round channel gets connected to a drilled hole on the same piece of material before it is bonded.

Half-Drill 1

Half round-Drilled 2: this intersection is created when a half round channel is bonded to a hole on the other piece of material.

Half-Drill 2

Square-Drilled: this intersection is created when a square channel (which has only been drilled out on one side) is drilled into.

Square-Drill