Paper:
Particle Sorting Using a PZT Jet Pump
Hidetoshi Ohuchi, Takaaki Ishii, and Shunsuke Muramatsu
Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, 4-3-11 Takeda, Kofu, Yamanashi 400-8511, Japan
A method of using a PZT jet pump to separate small objects from the flow of the mainstream is presented. The objects may be, for example, cells, medical markers, or hard-to-handle machine parts. For such particles, sorting methods that change the channel mechanically are not particle-friendly and tend to damage them. This research is related to the development of equipment that uses a jet stream from an injection pump driven by a PZT actuator to sort small particles. The particles are separated from the mainstream by small amounts of fluid the pump injects. The injection is produced by the impulsive force generated when voltage is rapidly applied to a multilayer PZT element. In the experiment, white or black polystyrene particles 1 mm in diameter are sorted by color, their colors discriminated by a reflection-type photo sensor. By timing the pump according to the velocity of the flow, a high separation success rate is achieved.
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