Fluicell has a patented novel micro-fluidic printhead design and a team of seasoned scientists and experts in developing and commercializing workflows for the pharmaceutical and therapeutics industry. Our challenge in the Biopixlar project was to design and create a custom lab instrument (around this novel micro-fluidic printhead) from the ground up, so it would be easy and fast to operate for the lab personnel.  This involved everything from a shell and precision 3-axis motion system and fluorescent microscope design to custom flow controllers and all-in-one desktop software to orchestrate all the sub-systems in the instrument.

Our responsibility was to design complete 3D bioprinter instruments from the idea to instrument that would be manufacturable in mid-size production runs:

• DFM analyzes to make sure the form factor is affordable to manufacture and transport and also is in form-factor that’s suitable for end-users who want to do the installation themselves (during the pandemic, this was especially important).
• Custom PCB design with ARM-based (STM32) for print chamber control.
• 3-axis precision (< 5 um accuracy) motion system (TMC based) + auto-focusing single-channel fluorescence microscope to monitor the open-volume printing process.
• 8-output (4 pressure chambers + 4 x MUX) flow controller to control the cell deposition process.
• Automatic print-head holder (with motorized manifold and tilt-angle control) to make loading cells easier.
• Brushless motorized membrane flow controller (for systems with smaller channels or higher flow rates).
• Windows desktop software (JavaFX + Pyhton and OpenCV) to control all aspects of the instrument hardware + custom visual editor to quickly design print patterns. Just hit print and see the results on the microscope feed!
• Custom CNC and sheet-metal shell design to make the instrument good-looking, self-contained, and easy to move around safely.
• Custom Packaging design (with FEM analysis) to make sure that all the fragile (optics) and sensitive (precision motion system) parts of the instruments are well protected during typical transportation using a courier company.