Abstract
As the open source development of additive manufacturing has led to low-cost desktop three-dimensional (3-D) printing, a number of scientists throughout the world have begun to share digital designs of free and open source scientific hardware. Open source scientific hardware enables custom experimentation, laboratory control, rapid upgrading, transparent maintenance, and lower costs in general. To aid in this trend, this study describes the development, design, assembly, and operation of a 3-D printable open source desktop nutating mixer, which provides a fixed 20° platform tilt angle for a gentle three-dimensional (gyrating) agitation of chemical or biological samples (e.g., DNA or blood samples) without foam formation. The custom components for the nutating mixer are designed using open source FreeCAD software to enable customization. All of the non-readily available components can be fabricated with a low-cost RepRap 3-D printer using an open source software tool chain from common thermoplastics. All of the designs are open sourced and can be configured to add more functionality to the equipment in the future. It is relatively easy to assemble and is accessible to both the science education of younger students as well as state-of-the-art research laboratories. Overall, the open source nutating mixer can be fabricated with US$37 in parts, which is 1/10th of the cost of proprietary nutating mixers with similar capabilities. The open source nature of the device allow it to be easily repaired or upgraded with digital files, as well as to accommodate custom sample sizes and mixing velocities with minimal additional costs.
Highlights
Open source three-dimensional (3-D) printing developed from the self-replicating rapid prototype (RepRap) project [1,2,3], has widened the doors for innovation and excellence in varied domains [4].Combining 3-D printing with off the shelf and available electrical mechanisms has provided cost effective opportunities to design and build customized scientific equipment [5,6]
Open hardware has been developed for more conventional scientific tools in biology labs [11], optics labs [12], and even DNA nanotechnology labs, which can fabricate DNA-coated for up to 90% less than commercially offered tools [13]
Scientists can design, share and build on one another’s work to develop advanced scientific tools [25], such as devices to enable digital microfluidics [26,27], large stage probing [28], and microscopy [29]. These tools can all be maintained, modified, upgraded, or repaired because the full assembly instructions and bill of materials (BOM) are included. To continue this development of low-cost open hardware tools, this paper describes the development of a desktop nutating mixer, which provides a fixed 20◦ platform tilt angle for a gentle three-dimensional agitation of samples
Summary
Open source three-dimensional (3-D) printing developed from the self-replicating rapid prototype (RepRap) project [1,2,3], has widened the doors for innovation and excellence in varied domains [4]. Scientists can design, share and build on one another’s work to develop advanced scientific tools [25], such as devices to enable digital microfluidics [26,27], large stage probing [28], and microscopy [29] These tools can all be maintained, modified, upgraded, or repaired because the full assembly instructions and bill of materials (BOM) are included. To continue this development of low-cost open hardware tools, this paper describes the development of a desktop nutating mixer, which provides a fixed 20◦ platform tilt angle for a gentle three-dimensional (gyrating) agitation of samples. Future work will be detailed to enhance the performance of the system
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