Open source scientific bottle roller - PMC
Open source scientific bottle roller - PMC
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit Welllive.
Abstract
Proprietary bottle rolling systems automate some laboratory applications, however, their high costs limit accessibility. This study provides designs of an open source bottle roller that is compatible with distributed digital manufacturing using 3-D printed parts and readily-available commercial components. The experimental results show that the open source bottle roller can be fabricated for CAD$210 (about USD$150) in materials, which is 86% less expensive than the most affordable proprietary bottle roller on the market. The design, however, is more robust with enhanced capabilities. The design can be adapted to the user’s needs, but is already compatible with incubators with a low profile (dimensions 50 cm x46 cm x8.8 cm) and capable of being operated at elevated temperatures. The systems can be adjusted to revolves from 1 to 200 RPM, exceeding the rotational speed of most commercial systems. The open source bottle roller as tested has a capacity greater than 1.2 kg and can roll twelve 100 mL bottles simultaneously. Validation testing showed that it can operate for days at 80 RPM without human intervention or monitoring for days at both room temperature and elevated temperatures (50 °C). Future work includes adapting the designs for different sizes and for different fabrication techniques to further reduce costs and increase flexibility.
Keywords:
Bottle roller, 3D printing, Chemical mixing, Bottle rolling, Open hardware, Scientific hardware
Specifications table.
Hardware nameOpen Source Scientific Bottle RollerSubject area•
Engineering and materials science
•
Chemistry and biochemistry
•
Mechanical engineering and materials science
(https://www.tequipment.net/Thermo-Scientific/Bottle/Tube-Roller/Tube-Roller-Mixers)Open source licenseDocumentation: GNU General Public License (GPL) 3.0;Hardware: CERN OHL-S v2Cost of hardware<USD$160 (CAD$210)Source file repositoryhttps://osf.io/ps57u/OSHWA certification UID
{"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"CA000027","term_id":"24277009","term_text":"CA000027"}}
CA000027DOIhttps://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/5ZRT3Open in a separate windowHardware in context
A scientific bottle roller is used to rotate bottles at a set speed ranging from 1 revolution per minute (RPM) up to 80 RPM [1]. Bottle rollers are used in a range of scientific research areas such as cell cultivation [2], [3], sediment leaching [5], gold particulate separation [6], chemical blending [7], drying [8], and many other applications outside of the lab such as mixing essential oils or bituminous mixtures [9]. Although commercial bottle rolling systems automate some of these laboratory applications, their costs limit accessibility as the retail price of a simple single-layer bottle roller costs CAD$1540 (US$1136.97) [10] and those that are used in incubators can cost over CAD$2910 (US$2148.44) [11]. The large costs of proprietary scientific bottle rollers summarized in limit accessibility in the scientific community. It should be noted that the CAD$ to US$ exchange rate used was about 1.355.
Table 1
Commercial Proprietary ProductCostSpecificationsThermo Scientific Bottle/Tube Roller [10]CAD$1,539.00 (US$1136.24)•
Speed Range: 1 to 80 RPM
•
Temperature Range: 4 °C to 60 °C
•
Number of rollers: 6
•
Speed Range: 1 to 80 RPM
•
Temperature Range: 4 °C to 60 °C
•
Number of rollers: 3
•
Speed Range: 2 to 38 RPM
•
Temperature Range: 4 °C to 60 °C
•
Number of rollers: 2
•
Speed Range: 1 to 80 RPM
•
Temperature Range: 0 °C to 60 °C
•
Number of rollers: 10
•
Speed Range: 0.5 to 80 RPM
•
Temperature Range: 4 °C to 60 °C
•
Number of rollers: 15–20
One approach to reducing research equipment costs is to use decentralized production of free and open source hardware (FOSH) [12], [13]. The FOSH approach can reduce costs [14], [15], enable customization and increase control for scientists [13], [15], [16], [17]. This is largely due to the development of open source digital manufacturing technologies such as the self-replicating rapid prototyper (RepRap) 3-D printer [18], [19], [20]. In this open hardware model [21], [22] designs are shared for free and then transformed to physical products through digital manufacturing. A review of the recent FOSH literature found scientific FOSH material costs had an average savings of 87% compared to equivalent or lesser proprietary tools [17]. These economic savings increased slightly to 89% for those that used open-source electronics like Arduino technology [23], 92% for those that implemented RepRap-class 3-D printing, and 94% with both [17]. When scientists build their own hardware [22], [24] using parametric FOSH [21], [25], it allows for high-quality bespoke research equipment [12], [26], [27], [28].
For more information, please visit roll on bottle manufacturers.
The FOSH approach has been applied to chemical mixing in several ways such as: i) an open source 3-D printed nutating mixer [29], ii) rotator mixer and shaker [30], iii) orbital shaker [31], iv) stirring [32] and v) a shake table [33]. Open source chemical mixing has also been used at the micro-scale for microfluidic devices [34] as well as for reactionware [35] using a wide variety of readily available chemically compatible feedstocks [36]. In addition, open source alternatives are available for pharmaceutical applications [37], and incubation via the Incubot for long-term live cell imaging [38]. Bottle rolling, however, has not yet been open sourced using a design that can be readily manufactured using a digital distribution model.
This study aims to overcome this limitation by reducing the cost of bottle rollers using the open hardware approach and distributed digital manufacturing. Specifically, this study provides the designs for an open source bottle roller that is a less expensive alternative to commercial bottle rolling systems, while also increasing the capacity of the bottle roller to allow for fewer bottle rolling systems to be used to complete a larger task. The open source bottle roller is manufactured using 3-D printed parts for custom mechanical parts and readily-available components for the power supply, rollers, bearings, and speed controller.
Hardware description
The open-source bottle roller can be printedon any thermoplastic materials extrusion-based 3-D printer, but to overcome commercial limitations, the main components of the device are fabricated using a RepRap-class fused filament 3-D printer. Furthermore, the electronic parts, rollers, bearings, and speed controller are provided from readily available components in the local markets. The open source bottle roller is fully customizable and allows the user to increase the capacity of bottles on a larger scale. Testing and validation are provided to compare the quality of the open source bottle roller with the available commercial ones, and a comparison in price is made to show the economic advantage of the open-source one with commercial peers. The features of the open source bottle roller include:
•
Low-cost chemical mixing for laboratory purposes
•
Customizable design based on the user’s needs
•
Compatible with incubators with a low profile (dimensions 50 cmx46 cmx8.8 cm)
•
Revolves 1 to 200 RPM, while the maximum speed of most commercial systems is 80 RPM
•
Operational in an incubator at elevated temperatures (50 °C)
•
Holds 12 bottles of 100 mL simultaneously. (Capacity greater than 1.2 kgs)
Validation and characterization
In this study, the performance of the open source bottle roller design was evaluated by comparing it to commercially available options. For this purpose, the information on the specifications and performance were collected as are provided in . The variables that will be investigated are: 1) the ability to maintain the appropriate speed that is required for the bottle roller to be effective over the duration of the desired amount of time at room temperature, and 2) the bottle roller ability to maintain constant speed while maintaining structural integrity in an oven at 50 °C.
Validation testing for the open-source bottle roller was designed to test the durability of the design in a heated environment for an extended period of time and be able to function at the same level as a commercial bottle roller. Validation testing took place for 48 h by placing twelve roller bottles completely filled with water, which had a weight of 100 mL per bottle. The speed controller allows fixing the speed at a precise number, including 80 rpm. With the open-source bottle roller fully loaded it was placed in a 50 °C oven with the rotation speed on the bottle roller set to 80 RPM. The bottle roller design and components were validated by maintaining full functionality after 24 h of continuous operation in the 50 °C oven. The operation of the open source bottle roller can be seen in two supplementary videos [52], [53].
The capabilities of the open source bottle roller include:
•
The capital cost is reduced to CAD$210, which is 86% less expensive than the most affordable commercial bottle roller shown in .
•
Capability of rolling 12 bottles filled with 100 mL water for at least 48 h without failure in room temperature at 80 RPM speed. Although the motor became slightly warm after several days of operation, it functioned safely without raising any concerns about causing injury during use or failure. Ability to operate for 24 h at elevated temperatures (50 °C) without failure.
•
The bottles roll smoothly on the PVC pipes. To enhance the friction between the bottles and the pipes for applications with heavier masses, the pipes can be sanded or have rubber added to create a rougher/higher surface friction surface.
•
Having a broader range of speeds offers the advantage of utilizing the bottle roller for other scientific applications. For instance, this device can be used to achieve homogeneous dispersion of silicon particles into polymer resin for 3-D printing of silicon-based objects via an SLA printer.
•
Since the open-source bottle roller is customizable, it can accommodate different sizes of bottles by using PVC pipes with various dimensions.
•
The device includes multiple belts that can be easily removed when the user needs to rotate fewer bottles. By removing belts, the user can reduce the number of pipes that roll, optimizing the device's performance for their specific application.
Future work
The open source bottle roller was designed to be manufactured by most desktop 3-D printers. This asset, however, can be a limitation as because of the printer bed size being smaller than the device, the main body of the bottle roller is separated into eight pieces, which significantly impacts the structural strength. The connectors and reinforcement bars are designed to overcome this limitation by connecting these pieces together, but they result in the excess of printed parts, a slight increase in the height of the system and added costs for connectors. There are several open source approaches to solving this issue. First, a large format open source 3-D printer could be used to print the entire structural frame in a single print. If the large format printer was also a waste plastic fused granular fabrication (FGF)-based 3-D printer (cartesian [54], delta [55], or hang printer [56], [57]) the costs of the system could be reduced further by about 10% as recycled PETG particles could be used instead of filament. For example, the bottle roller could be fabricated by waste plastic PET water bottles [58]. Moreover, by selecting a higher melting point 3-D printable polymer like polycarbonate (PC) even higher temperature operation may be possible [59]. Another potential solution to this design limitation is to utilize open-source laser cutting or CNC milling [60] to cut the four sides of the bottle roller on a plastic sheet. Further the plastic sheets could be fabricated in an open source hot press from recycled plastic as well [61]. This way, the bottle roller can be held in place and the connectors and reinforcement bars can be eliminated and ensure overall strength and stability. In addition, to reduce the purchased components the PVC pipes can be replaced by 3-D printed pipes or extrusion molded pipes from an open source recyclebot [62], [63], [64], [65], [66].
Moreover, the bottle roller is customizable to be used in different scale applications. The smaller version can be obtained using PVC pipes with smaller diameter. It should be pointed out that the same percentile cost savings could be had by using either filament from an open-source recyclebot or small-scale FGF [67], [68]. In this regard, changing the dimensions of the provided designs can be helpful. Also, the user can make the bigger version through adding outer plates. The other design that can be useful and adapted easily from the current design for some applications is the stacked version that consist of some bottle rollers on top of each other. This would be helpful for scaling bottle rolling applications to greater production volumes. The bottle roller can also be used for non-cylindrical components or specialty vessels. To do this a 3-D printed component can be fashioned to hold these non-optimal vessels. To illustrate this shows a 3-D printable holder for a microcentrifuge tube, which can then be used on the open source bottle roller. Similar strategies can be used for many microcentrifuge tubes or other types or shapes of containers.
Open in a separate windowEthics statements
This project does not involve human subjects and animal experiments.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Maryam Mottaghi: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Yuntian Bai: Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Apoorv Kulkarni: Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing – review & editing, Visualization. Joshua M. Pearce: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Resources, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Thompson Endowment.
Biographies
Maryam Mottaghi is a PhD student in Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the Western University. She earned her master's degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Tehran for work on “3D-printing of Li-ion batteries”, which improved the power and energy density of batteries through 3D printing process. Maryam also worked in the Centre of Technology Intelligence, at Sharif University of Technology, as a research assistant to seek out the cutting-edge technologies and help industries find innovative ways to improve their services while trying to achieve sustainable development goals. Currently, she is working on 3D printing for solar energy at the Free and Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) research group. Her research interests include 3D printing, additive manufacturing, designing, and energy devices. Her main research goal is 3D printing of storage devices out of recycled materials using open source hardware.
Yuntian Bai is earned his master of engineering degree from the department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering in Western University, Canada. His research interests are in additive manufacturing and design.
Apoorv Kulkarni is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Western University, Canada in the Free and Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) research group. He was Department of Excellence research fellow at University of Trento, Italy, where he earned his PhD. His principal research interests are additive manufacturing, polymer derived ceramics and open-source hardware. He has previously worked as a researcher at Michigan Technological University in the field of open-source appropriate technology.
Joshua M. Pearce is the John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation at the Thompson Centre for Engineering Leadership & Innovation. He holds appointments at Ivey Business School and the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Western University in Canada. He runs the Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology research group. His research concentrates on the use of open source appropriate technology (OSAT) to find collaborative solutions to problems in sustainability and to reduce poverty. His research spans areas of engineering of solar photovoltaic technology, open hardware, and distributed recycling and additive manufacturing (DRAM) using RepRap 3-D printing, but also includes policy and economics. He is the editor-in-chief of HardwareX, the first journal dedicated to open source scientific hardware and the author of the Open-Source Lab:How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs, Create, Share, and Save Money Using Open-Source Projects, and To Catch the Sun, an open source book of inspiring stories of communities coming together to harness their own solar energy, and how you can do it too!
For more Dropper Glass Bottle Suppliersinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.