Three-valve peristaltic pump

10 variants

A pump whose only moving parts are thin flexible sheets. Three round chambers sit in a row along one liquid channel, each covered by one of those sheets with an air line above it. Pushing air into a chamber presses the sheet down and pinches the channel shut; releasing it lets the channel open again. Squeezing the three in sequence walks liquid along the channel one pocket at a time.

What it is for. Moving a small, repeatable amount of liquid through a chip under air pressure, without a syringe pump or any sliding part that could leak or trap sample.

Variants

Sizes below are given in px: units of the design grid these parts were drawn on, where the unit is not the same for every variant here — each one's Layout grid row says which it uses. That is not the printer's pixel. The printer has its own, different pixel size, and nothing on this page is expressed in it — see Hardware and process.

`pump_150px_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Credit. Gale Lab, University of Utah. The lab's own design, made with the lab's generator scripts; not in the public design kit (utah-MFDA/h.r.3.3_pdk). Licence: MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Gale Lab, University of Utah).

pump_150px_0. A computer render of the cell's channels, in orange, inside its footprint of 4.79 mm × 1.6 mm (from its LEF), drawn see-through; not a photograph. Beside it, its cross-section through the middle.

Parameters for pump_150px_0
Valve diameter	150 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Edge
Membrane thickness	1 layer
Fluid chamber height	3 layers
Air chamber height	6 layers
Channel cross-section	8 px × 6 layers
Footprint	630 × 210 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.0076 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_150px_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_150px_0.scad47.8 KBDownload

`pump_190px_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Parameters for pump_190px_0
Valve diameter	190 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Edge
Membrane thickness	1 layer
Fluid chamber height	3 layers
Air chamber height	6 layers
Channel cross-section	8 px × 6 layers
Footprint	720 × 270 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.0076 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_190px_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_190px_0.scad47.8 KBDownload

`pump_20px_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Credit. Gale Lab, University of Utah. The lab's own changes to the public design kit's cell of this name; the public kit (utah-MFDA/h.r.3.3_pdk) has a different design under the same name. Licence: MIT (Copyright (c) 2026 Gale Lab, University of Utah; Copyright (c) 2021 utah-MFDA).

pump_20px_0. A computer render of the cell's channels, in orange, inside its footprint of 4.1 mm × 1.37 mm (from its LEF), drawn see-through; not a photograph. Beside it, its cross-section through the middle.

Parameters for pump_20px_0
Valve diameter	20 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Edge
Membrane thickness	1 layer
Fluid chamber height	3 layers
Air chamber height	6 layers
Channel cross-section	8 px × 6 layers
Footprint	540 × 180 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.0076 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_20px_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_20px_0.scad47.8 KBDownload

`pump_40px_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Parameters for pump_40px_0
Valve diameter	40 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Edge
Membrane thickness	1 layer
Fluid chamber height	3 layers
Air chamber height	6 layers
Channel cross-section	8 px × 6 layers
Footprint	540 × 180 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.0076 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_40px_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_40px_0.scad48.0 KBDownload

`pump_40px_centerfed_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Parameters for pump_40px_centerfed_0
Valve diameter	40 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Centre
Membrane thickness	1 layer
Fluid chamber height	3 layers
Air chamber height	6 layers
Channel cross-section	8 px × 6 layers
Footprint	540 × 180 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.0076 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_40px_centerfed_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_40px_centerfed_0.scad47.8 KBDownload

`pump_60px_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Parameters for pump_60px_0
Valve diameter	60 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Edge
Membrane thickness	1 layer
Fluid chamber height	3 layers
Air chamber height	6 layers
Channel cross-section	8 px × 6 layers
Footprint	540 × 180 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.0076 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_60px_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_60px_0.scad48.0 KBDownload

`pump_60px_centerfed_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Parameters for pump_60px_centerfed_0
Valve diameter	60 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Centre
Membrane thickness	1 layer
Fluid chamber height	3 layers
Air chamber height	6 layers
Channel cross-section	8 px × 6 layers
Footprint	540 × 180 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.0076 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_60px_centerfed_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_60px_centerfed_0.scad47.8 KBDownload

`pump_60px_centerfed_22um_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Parameters for pump_60px_centerfed_22um_0
Valve diameter	60 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Centre
Membrane thickness	9 layers
Fluid chamber height	44 layers
Air chamber height	44 layers
Channel cross-section	20 px × 44 layers
Footprint	540 × 180 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.022 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_60px_centerfed_22um_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_60px_centerfed_22um_0.scad50.1 KBDownload

`pump_80px_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Parameters for pump_80px_0
Valve diameter	80 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Edge
Membrane thickness	1 layer
Fluid chamber height	3 layers
Air chamber height	6 layers
Channel cross-section	8 px × 6 layers
Footprint	540 × 180 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.0076 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_80px_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_80px_0.scad47.8 KBDownload

`pump_91px_centerfed_22um_0`

H.R.3.3 design

Parameters for pump_91px_centerfed_22um_0
Valve diameter	91 px
Where liquid enters the chamber	Centre
Membrane thickness	10 layers
Fluid chamber height	44 layers
Air chamber height	44 layers
Channel cross-section	20 px × 44 layers
Footprint	540 × 180 px
Ports	1 fluid in, 1 fluid out, 3 air in, 3 air out
Layout grid	0.022 mm per px

Files for this variant

LEFpump_91px_centerfed_22um_0.lef1.5 KBDownload
SCADpump_91px_centerfed_22um_0.scad50.1 KBDownload
STLpump_91px_centerfed_22um_0_solid.stl170.1 KBDownload
STLpump_91px_centerfed_22um_0_inside.stl168.5 KBDownloadFor inspection, not for printing: the channels and chambers inside the part, as a solid.

Credit. Gale Lab, University of Utah. The lab's own designs, made with the lab's generator scripts, and its own changes to kit cells of the same names; not in the public design kit (utah-MFDA/h.r.3.3_pdk). Each variant says which. Licence: MIT (varies by variant: each variant gives its own).

What changes between variants: Valve diameter, Where liquid enters the chamber.

Technical details — where these descriptions come from

Every cell in this product calls the membrane-valve primitive three times, spaced along one channel. The membrane construction is described in the PDK's own documentation: “a circular microvalve that uses a membrane that deflects through the application of pressure.” That the three valves are driven in sequence to walk liquid along is confirmed by the lab — it is not something the geometry states, and it is recorded here as the lab's account rather than as a reading of the files.

Every number on this page is read out of the variant's own .scad source at build time, not copied from the old catalogue text. Sizes are given in the layout grid the cells are drawn on — px here is that grid, whose default is stated per variant below. It is not the printer's pixel pitch, which is a different number; see Hardware and process.

What the status words mean

Each variant's status names the printer it is drawn for: the H.R.3.3, the printer the README of the lab's process design kit names.

Tested in the lab with real chemistry	Measured against known chemistry in physical experiments.
Printed and measured on the bench	Printed, and its behaviour measured on the bench matches the design.
A test print	A physical article exists.
Checked in CAD	Modelled and geometry-checked in CAD.
Made by the design software	Ran end-to-end through the pipeline.
An idea	A design on paper or in a wizard spec.
A design for its printer	Drawn on its design kit's grid for the printer the kit is made for, which its status names.

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