![]() With the 600 dpi there are smoother features but at the sacrifice of channel height, when compared with the 1200 dpi channels. The printing uses a LaserJet printer with both 600 dpi and 1200 dpi. Initial designs of the microfluidic channels are designed using AutoCad and then these designs were then printed onto Shrinky Dink plastic paper. 1 with permission from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and The Royal Society of Chemistry. Visual form of the Shrinky Dink mater creation and PDMS casting. The resolution of the printer directly affects the minimum line width of the final microfluidic device. This random bunching can create narrower or wider sections of the channels. The Shrinking is subject to change each time because the polymers within the sheets will bunch randomly. The major disadvantage of this method is that the channel may not be uniform through the entire length and once the master needs replacement there is a question of reproducing the exact master, due to the shrinking. The channels that are created are semicircular which is not an easy shape to produce using other fabrication methods. The major advantages of this method are the rapid device development/prototyping, easy of manufacturing, simple equipment needs, and it creates a reusable master for PDMS casting or a useable device itself. The polyolefin sheets shrink by 95% where the standard Shrinky Dink plastic shrinks by 63%. Further studies looked at other materials such as polyolefin sheets. Where others have taken this method and spun off further methods, such as cutting out the device design to create the channels within the Shrinky Dink sheets. This method produces rounded channels in a short period of time. This group printed the device channels onto the Shrinky Dink sheets then shrunk them down to create a device master with raised areas that can then be used for to make the device out of PDMS. Michelle Khine’s group at the University of California Irvine investigated utilizing the shrinking properties of this commercial product in 2008 and in 2011 other shrinking plastics. The Shrinky Dinks’ shrinking properties can be utilized for microfluidic applications. When the sheets are heated during the baking process then begin to bunch up thus shrinking the overall sheet. This orderly configuration is not preferred energetically by the material. ![]() These polymer sheets are a bunch of polymer chains that have been stretched and flattened to an orderly configuration. Shrinky Dinks are made of polystyrene, the same material as plastic #6. A DIY version of this paper uses plastic #6, polystyrene, typically from to go boxes as a replacement for the Shrinky Dink plastic sheets but this has not been utilized for microfluidic devices. ![]() This product is designed to shrink the printed or colored design to a smaller size, commercially used for keychains or necklaces. This method utilizes a shrinking plastic sheet on the commercial market known as Shrinky Dinks. Scientists have developed a method of rapidly developing rounded channels for microfluidic devices. Subsequent reports have described the same approach using different plastics or cutting the pattern out of the sheets rather than printing the designs. This can be used for rapid prototyping or simple and rapid device development with the added benefit of having rounded channels. This shrunk design is then used as a master for rapid casting of devices. It requires Shrinky Dink plastic papers, or other shrinking plastics, to take a printed design and with heat shrink down the width and increase the height of the design. The method takes advantage of the shrinking capabilities of the toy called Shrinky Dinks to print larger designs and then shrink the design to allow for the microfluidic device size. This method was first designed in 2008 by Michelle Khine’s group at the University of California Irvine. Shrinky Dink Microfluidics is a cutting-edge method to design and rapidly produce microfluidic devices with rounded channels.
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