3D printed microfluidic devices are made of stiff and easy-to-fatigue materials and hence are difficult to have robust pneumatic valves. In this work, we describe a type of prefabricated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) valves, named the “Luer-lock” valve, which can be incorporated in 3D printed microfluidic devices utilizing the Luer-lock mechanism. Luer-lock design has been adopted for fluidic connections worldwide; it is facile, reliable, and inexpensive. To take advantage of the Luer-lock design, we added “valve ports” to our 3D printed microfluidic devices; prefabricated PDMS valve modules could be embedded into these valve ports, in a leak-free manner, by screwing tight the Luer-locks. In the experiment, we succeeded in fabricating pneumatic valves with a footprint diameter of 0.8 mm and verified the functionality of these valves with a shut-off pressure of 140 mbar and a maximal switching frequency of ∼1 Hz. As a demonstration, we show the serial encoding of core–shell hydrogel microfibers using the Luer-lock valves. Since the Luer-lock valves can be mass-produced and the CAD model of Luer-locks can be easily distributed, we believe that our approach has the potential to be easily adopted by researchers around the globe.

中文翻译：

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Luer 锁阀：用于 3D 打印微流体自动化的预制气动阀。

3D 打印的微流体装置由坚硬且易于疲劳的材料制成，因此很难拥有坚固的气动阀。在这项工作中，我们描述了一种名为“鲁尔锁”阀的预制聚二甲基硅氧烷 (PDMS) 阀，它可以利用鲁尔锁机制集成到 3D 打印的微流体装置中。鲁尔锁设计已在全球范围内用于流体连接；它简便、可靠且价格低廉。为了利用 Luer 锁设计，我们在 3D 打印的微流体设备中添加了“阀门端口”；预制的 PDMS 阀模块可以通过拧紧 Luer 锁以无泄漏的方式嵌入到这些阀口中。在实验中，我们成功地制造了足迹直径为 0 的气动阀门。8 mm 并验证了这些阀门的功能，关闭压力为 140 mbar，最大开关频率为 ~1 Hz。作为演示，我们展示了使用 Luer 锁阀对核壳水凝胶微纤维进行串行编码。由于鲁尔锁阀可以批量生产，鲁尔锁的 CAD 模型可以轻松分发，我们相信我们的方法有可能被全球研究人员轻松采用。