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I have only used 3D printing for smaller objects but next year I am part of an Antarctic project and one of the things that we will do is to measure oxygen consumption in fish.

The technique to measure oxygen consumption is something we use a lot in my research group but normally we make the respirometers using traditional manufacturing techniques. Basically a stop-flow respirometer consist of a tube with the dimensions adjusted for the animal size. The tube is closed by to endcaps and water is pumped through the respirometer at the same time as the oxygen tension in the water is measured. At certain time intervals the flow through the chamber is stopped and, since the animal continues to consume oxygen, the oxygen level in the chamber declines, the slope of this decline is used for calculating the oxygen consumption.

For the two last project I designed the respirometer I needed in the program SpaceClaim but then had them made by a traditional workshop, basically using SpaceClaim as a drawing program for the 2D draings that was used by the workshop.

This time the chamber design is a more complicated with a triangular chamber (normally circular) due to the morphology of the fish. This also means that the gasket’s that form the water tight seal between the endcaps and the chamber has to be triangular (normally we use standard O-rings) but made out of rubber.

My questions is could I print all the parts considering these things

  • The entire setup is going to be submerged in sea water for prolonged time, thus the plastic have to be compatible with water
  • The chamber needs to be transparent, not necessary like glass (we normally use Perspex or transparent PVC)
  • The endcaps can be opaque
  • The gasket should be rubber
  • Some parts in the attached drawing have to be of metal and they will be added afterwards (orange and brown/reddish)

The design can be seen at

https://skfb.ly/RMsV

Sincerely

Michael Axelsson

Michael Axelsson, Professor
University of Gothenburg, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences
Box 463
SE-405 30 Gothenburg
Sweden

phone: +46 31-786 3689
Mobile: +46766-183689
Fax: +46-31- 41 67 29
E-mail: michael.axelsson@gu.se
Web: http://www.bioenv.gu.se/personal/Axelsson_Michael/

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I would need more info but more than likely I can help you with all of this. I offer over 30 materials and do a lot of functional prototypes including medical. My work has survived similar conditions and much more extreme.

Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss further, especially if you can’t find someone on your side of the planet. I’ve done work for several European universities so shipping worldwide isn’t a problem.
https://www.3dhubs.com/miami/hubs/mindfull

Regardless, thanks for for sharing. This is very interesting stuff and I enjoyed reading about it!
Best of luck!
-Jesse

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