B.Sc. Project: Jan Uhlenberg on Development of a High-performance and low-cost fraction collector

Supervisors: Elmar Rückert, Wolfgang Risler, Nils Rottmann

Finished: 2019

Abstract

Preparative high-performance liquid chromatography is a chemical procedure in which a components mixture is separated into its components. In this procedure, fraction collectors are used to fill the separated components of a mixture into their dedicated vials. Fraction collectors available on the marked are usually made of a multiplicity of custom-made parts, which results in high manufacturing costs. A wide used drive concept for fraction collectors is the spindle drive, which is slow due to its gear ration. In this work, we propose an approach of building a fraction collector using a fast timing belt drive, which has performed well for 3D-Printers in practice. The result of a first prototype showed, that this drive-concept can be adapted also for fraction collectors. Thereby, the material and manufacturing costs can be kept low using a manufacturing aware part design.

Paper

Development to a High-Performance and low-cost fraction collector