We present a miniaturized, disposable, normally-closed electromagnetic dispensing valve for the microliter range to process 96-well plates. The novel injection-molded valve is designed to fit into a 9 mm grid to realize an eight channel dispensing head, enabling the serial processing of well plates row-by-row. The presented dispensing valve design originates from a miniaturization study of a pr...

In order to develop more efficient engines, it is essential to optimize the lubrication circuit of the power train systems. In this paper, during an engine design and development process, a network analysis of the engine lubrication system is described in detail. Two elements have been added to the lubrication circuit in the modified engine. These elements are hydraulic lifters and an Anti-d...

Gas-lifted oil wells are susceptible to failure through malfunction of gas lift valve assemblies (GLV). One failure mode occurs when the GLV check valve fails and product passes into the well annulus, potentially reaching the wellhead. This is a growing concern as offshore wells are drilled thousands of meters below the ocean floor in extreme temperature and pressure conditions, and repair and ...

Gas lift valves are widely used in oil production fields to pump recycled gas and nitrogen into the production tubing, to sustain production by aerating the oil and lifting it to the ground or sea surface. Today's industry standard, a pressure-actuated valve, is susceptible to various modes of failure, including corrosion and jamming. Safety mechanisms are needed to seal the valve in case of a ...

New concepts for an impact actuated micro shift valve are presented which are useful e.g. as implant for the hydrocephalus disease. Such an implant must fulfil requirements, such as using biocompatible materials, a separation of the actuator from the fluid, MRT safety and low energy consumption in order to allow a battery powered system. The concepts are based on impacts that transmit an impuls...

This work describes a simple and inexpensive approach for controlling the pneumatic valves that were invented in Quake's group to miniaturize the whole system for portable and disposable microfluidic devices. The valves are assembled from two parts. One is the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) channels formed by multilayer soft lithography. The other is a polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) frame with mach...

The suitability of artiicial neural networks (ANNs) for detecting fault conditions in pneumatic control valve actuators is investigated. Speciically, the ability of a neural network to act as a predictor of correct valve behaviour is examined. Experimental results indicate that standard network architectures are unsuitable for temporal prediction of non-linear system behaviour. An original recu...

A study has been carried out to investigate the influence of soot contaminated automotive lubricants in the wear process of a simulated engine valve train contact. Previous research on this topic has been mainly performed from a chemical point of view in fundamental studies, with insufficient relevance to real engine conditions i.e. load and geometry. This study investigates the conditions unde...

The direct preparation of thermoresponsive monolithic copolymers by photopatterning of a liquid phase consisting of an aqueous solution of N-isopropylacrylamide, N-ethylacrylamide, N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide, and 4,4'-azobis(4-cyanovaleric acid) has been studied and the products used as valves within the channels of microfluidic devices. The volume change associated with the polymer phase tran...