Baghdad UniversityAl-Khwarizmi College of Engineering

Automated Manufacturing Department

micro valve actuator

by haider k. mohammed

date 31-12-2014

A microvalve was a part of the fluid control system found as form of enclosed space. Responding to commands from the pilot or copilot, the valve would open or close to allow pressurized fluid to follow a certain path along the flow-track to prompt various systems. Since its introduction in 1956, the Micro Valve has provided successful service through thousands of applications. Choose Micro Valve, the best valve to solve liquid, air and gas service design problems. It absolutely will not leak. With other miniature valves, leakage occurs when flow is redirected from one port to another. But with the Micro Valve, flow is instantly redirected so there is no leakage. .With a unique, over-center snap-action, it will give a quick, sure response. There are no sliding seals, packing, or tight-fitting moving parts to leak, wear out or stick. Therefore, no lubricants are required.

Micro valves will withstand abrasive-bearing fluids. With all ports having some connection, external contaminants cannot enter the units. Dirt and grit will not prevent tight seating and will not cause the valve to stick.These valve offers sure response, with no neutral position, and no varying time lag between positions. Micro Valves maintain either position without holding force, and cannot be vibrated or jarred out of position.Valve action is full-speed regardless of operator speed or force applied. Trip-point position repeats accurately and is essentially independent of the speed of the external actuating device. Light operating forces are required and not affected by operating pressure or flow rate. Shut-off is bubble-tight up to rated pressures.

Micro Valves:-

1- Passive microvalves A- mechanical B- non mechanical 2-Active microvalves A-mechanical B- non mechanical C- external μ valve;

1- the passive microvalves :- In this section, selected examples of passive microvalves with mechanical moving parts will be briefly reviewed. Most passive microvalves, or check valves, are incorporated in inlets and outlets of reciprocal displacement micropumps as mechanical moving parts, such as

1- flaps ,2- membranes ,3- spherical balls or 4- mobile structures (table 1). Passive valves only open to forward pressure, showing diode-like characteristics. The oneway behavior of these check valves significantly affects the pumping performance of a reciprocal displacement micropump. Leakage in the check valves reduces backpressure and pumping rate in the micropump.

Types of μ valves:-

Table 1

EM, electromagnetic; ES, electrostatic; PE, piezoelectric; TP, thermopneumatic; SMA, shape memory alloy; C, capillary driven; G, gas; L, liquid; DI, deionized water; M, methanol; O, opening; C, closing; PI, polyimide;P-Si, poly-silicon; SOI, silicon-on-insulator; Diodicity, the ratio of forward flow to backward flow.

Cantilever-type flaps were made of thin layers of silicon, metals or polymers . Zengerle et al ,developed a bidirectional electrostatic silicon micropump by actuating higher frequencies (2–6 kHz) than the resonance frequency (1–2 kHz) of a 5 μm thick silicon flap. Xu, reported 12 μm thick silicon flaps for an SMA micropump. fabricated a pair of bivalvular silicon microvalves by using the p+ etch-stop method. Each valve had two 2 μm thick flexible p+ silicon wings with a slit width of 25 μm. Water flow rates of 1600 μl min−1 at 4 kPa of forward pressure and 50 μl min−1 at 4 kPa of backward pressure were obtained. Various static and dynamic simulations have been performed for cantilever-type silicon flaps. Oosterbroek reported a new method to fabricate duckbill-like flap microvalves with thin crystallographic planes on a silicon wafer by an anisotropic wet etching techniques. The duckbill check valves with dimensions of 1 mm long, 5 μm thick and 300 μm high showed a forward-to-backward flow ratio of about 4.6at 30 kPa.

1.1 Flap:-

Membrane check valves can be formed with bridges, holes or bumps . For large movable distances, bridge-type membranes are generally used. A fabricated bridge-type membrane valve integrated with a piezoelectric micropump. The check valve with a nickel membrane held by four bridges (50μm×400μm each) supported high pressures up to 10MPa.

Bien et al developed a 2.5 μm thick polycrystalline silicon membrane valve held by three

bridges. The ratio of reverse to forward flow rates of methanol was found to be less than 3% at a pressure of 11 kPa. A built 90 μm thick silicon membrane valve using a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. A maximum flowrate of 35.6 ml min−1was obtained at a forward pressure of 65.5 kPa, and a negligible leakage flow rate of 0.01 μl min−1 was observed at a reverse pressure of up to 600 kPa. The resonance frequency of the valve in air was 17.7 kHz.

Membrane check valves were made of various polymer materials, such as Parylene , SU-8, Kapton, Mylar or silicone , due to large deflections which in turn lead to linear forward resistance. Feng and Kim [181] fabricated 4 μm thick bridgetype Parylene membrane valves with a fundamental resonant frequency around 1 kHz for a piezoelectric micropump. The dynamic behavior of the check valves was studied along driving frequencies in detail. It is developed cerebrospinal fluid shunt microvalves with a 6 μm thick Parylene membrane connected to an anchor by bridges.

1.2 Membrane:-

The popular application of ball valves is for heart valve prostheses . The valve, known as the Starr–Edwards heart valve, is designed for implantation in a human body that has valvular disorders. It has a silicone rubber ball inside a Lucite cage with thick struts and a machined ring orifice. The valve is inserted between two chambers of the heart. If blood flow is regurgitated, the ball moves toward the ring orifice and stops blood flow. In a similar manner, these ball-type valves were miniaturized as passive check valves in micropump structures.

It is used ball-type check valves for a piezoelectric micropump fabricated by stereolithography. Each ball valve consisted of a cylindrical chamber connected to a hemispherical chamber which contained a mobile ball with a diameter of 1.2 mm. When the valve was closed, the ball stayed in an inlet orifice. When negative pressures acted on the valve, the ball moved upward and the fluid flowed through the valve chamber.

passive ball valves for an electromagnetic micropump with a PDMS membrane embedded with a permanent magnet. A ball with a diameter of 0.7 mm was encapsulated inside each conical hole shaped by a power blasting erosion process. The characteristic curve of flow rates versus static pressures in the ball valve showed similarity to the I–V curve of an electronic diode.

1.3 Spherical ball:-

Hasselbrink developed an in-line microvalve using a mobile polymer structure, photo polymerization method inside microchannels. The mobile structures were created by completely filling the microchannels of a glass microfluidic chip with the monomer/solvent/initiator components of a non-stick photopolymer and then selectively exposing the chip to UV light in order to define mobile pistons inside the micro channels.

Sealing pressures up to 30 MPa and actuation time less than 33 ms were measured. Similar mobile structures in an on chip high pressure picoliter injector were photo polymerized for HPLC applications by Reichmuth .The valve element in the injector performed injection approximately two orders of magnitude smaller than that in (from 10 to 0.18 nl) and demonstrated leakage flows reduced by three orders of magnitude at similar pressure differentials (from 9.6 to below 0.012 nl min−1).

In addition, Seidemann fabricated an in-line check valve using a mobile SU-8 structure in a 360μm thick and 200μm wide microchannel. With higher inlet pressures, the triangular shaped in-line valve suspended by an anchored S-shaped spring resulted in the closure of the microchannel. The compliant spring produced the restoring force for opening when the inlet pressures were reduced.

1.4 In-line mobile structure:-

Flow is instantly redirected, so there is no leakage. Unique over-center snap action provides quick,

sure response. No sliding seals, packing or tight-fitting moving

parts to leak or wear out. Requires no lubrication; no need to introduce a

system lubricator. Suitable for vacuum service.

Features and benefits:-

Pressure switches. Level controls. Air switch to operate pneumatic tools and

pumps. Pilot operation of main valves. Limit switches on cylinder actuated devices. Diverting valve used to introduce additive to

two independent flow systems. Container filling or sampling with instant and

dripless shut off. Machine shop and assembly area for parts

blow off.

Applications:-

1- http://www.fmctechnologies.com/en/FluidControl/Technologies/Invalco/LevelControls.aspx

2- http://diyhpl.us/~bryan/papers2/microfluidics/Review%20-%20Microvalves.pdf

3- http://solidswiki.com/index.php?title=Micro_Valves

References:-