Rapid production of cyclonic spray chambers for inductively coupled plasma applications using low cost 3D printer technology

Abstract

The development of low cost 3D printer technology is having a profound effect on everyday life. Over the past few years there have been many reports in the media detailing futuristic uses of this technology. Whilst the merits of these applications are clear there is an opportunity for this technology to enhance current research where a degree of fabrication is required. This work describes some initial research into the use of 3D printing for the fabrication of cyclonic spray chambers for inductively coupled plasma applications. The linearity, precision and detection limits obtained from the 3D printed chamber have been compared to a commercial model with largely positive results. Comparison between the performance of subsequent prints of the same spray chamber has also been carried out and has been shown to be highly reproducible. This work suggests that low-cost 3D printing techniques can be used as an inexpensive way to fabricate prototype spray chambers to accelerate the research in this area.