DIY Electrospinning System
Electrospinning is a fiber production method which uses electric force to draw charged threads of polymer solutions or polymer melts up to fiber diameters in the order of some hundred nanometers. Electrospinning shares characteristics of both electrospraying and conventional solution dry spinning of fibers. The process does not require the use of coagulation chemistry or high temperatures to produce solid threads from solution. This makes the process particularly suited to the production of fibers using large and complex molecules.
Uses of electrospinning technique in
1 Filtration
2 Textile manufacturing
3 Medical
4 Pharmaceutical manufacturing
5 Composites
6 Catalysts
Do-it-yourself electrospinning system is going designed with the used bin material which are available in our home.
Necessart Parts Required Fo the System Design
The components which are required for this process:
Relay: to control the power,
Intel edison devkit: to control all the peripherals,
LCD: to display the current value,
DC Gear motor: to move syringe,
DC motor: to rotate the drum,
Temperature sensor: to monitor the surrounding temperature,
Grove shield: to interface the sensors to the edison board via GPIO pins,
Piston pump (GLUE STICK): to eject the solution from syringe,
Gear wheels: to turn the piston,
Syringe: to maintain the quantity of solution.
Glue Stick Piston Pump
In electrospinning system piston pump is important to pump the fluid from the syringe. The piston pump is designed using the used empty Glue stick by attaching the gearwheel at the rear part as shown in figure. This can pump up to 5ml of solution from the syringe.
Powersupply for the Gear Motor
The power supply for the gear motor is selected from the DC power regulator with various voltage levels to choose appropriate speed. This power is connected to gear motor via relay which will be controlled by the Intel edison IoT board.
Interfacing Sensors to the Edison Board Via Grove Shield.
The sensors and actuators are connected to the Intel Edison board through Grove kit. The components like Temperature sensor, LCD display, Relay, Button switch are used for this electrospinning system.
Wooden Stepup for the System
Waste Wooden plank sheet is to fit DC gear motor, Piston pump, switch and for syringe as shown in figure.
Hardware Setup
The required components are connected and interface to the Intel Edison board and the gear motor is controlled with relay and button, LCD display is used to visualize the temperature values and the color of the LCD is change according to the temperature range.
Arduino IDE C/C++ Program for Electrospinning System
Program to control relay, switch, LCD and temperature sensor is written in C/C++. The program
#include
#include "rgb_lcd.h"
const int pinTemp = A0;
const int chipSelect = 4;
const int buttonPin = 3;
const int relayPin = 8;
float temperature; int B=3975;
float resistance;
rgb_lcd lcd;
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(115200);
lcd.begin(16, 2);
lcd.print("Temperature");
pinMode(relayPin, OUTPUT);
pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
}
void breath(unsigned char color)
{
for(int i=0; i<255; i++)
{
lcd.setPWM(color, i);
delay(0.1);
}
delay(100);
for(int i=1; i>=0; i--)
{
lcd.setPWM(color, i);
}
}
void loop()
{
// Read the state of the button.
int buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);
// If the button is pressed, activate (close) the relay.
if (buttonState == 0)
{
digitalWrite(relayPin, HIGH);
}
else
{
digitalWrite(relayPin, LOW);
}
if (temperature >25)
{
breath(REG_RED);
}
if (temperature <25)
{
breath(REG_GREEN);
}
if (temperature <20)
{
breath(REG_BLUE);
}
lcd.setCursor(5,1);
lcd.write(0b11011111);
lcd.setCursor(6,1);
lcd.print("C");
int val = analogRead(pinTemp);
resistance=(float)(1023-val)*10000/val;
temperature=1/(log(resistance/10000)/B+1/298.15)-273.15;
lcd.setCursor(0,1);
lcd.print(temperature);
}
Final Integrated Setup
The Intel Edison board is connected to program the functioning of electrospinning system the all necessary components are attached to the board. The hardware drivers and related documents can be found in the link.
https://software.intel.com/en-us/get-started-edis...
Step by step run up for installation is given in the below link
Program Execution and Monitoring on Serial Monitor of Arduino IDE
Once the program is written in C/C++ in Arduino IDE the program is executed so that the program is uploaded to the hardware. Upload is complete reset the hardware it run the program and execute the task. Temperature data from the Digital sensor is monitor in the Arduino IDE serial monitor in real-time.
Video Presention of Working
The video shows how it was demonstrated