3D Printed Vacuum Pump
UC San Diego | MAE 156B Spring 2026
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PROJECT BACKGROUND
Amauris, founded by Aaron Clark, is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide underprivileged communities with local manufacturing access for essential medical supplies. Amauris supplies 3D printers and training to vulnerable communities that lack the tools to solve their own problems. This is includes support for a local surgical center's labor and delivery clinic. This project aims to create a vacuum-assisted delivery pump to provide addition traction support during complicated deliveries. To meet this vital need, the project's goal is to engineer and design a 3D printable, and easily assembled pump that is capable of meeting precise pressure requirements need for typical vacuum assisted delivery.
OBJECTIVES
A standard procedure for a vacuum assisted delivery
The vacuum-assisted delivery pump needs to meet the following objectives:
The team must create an affordable, easy to assemble and manufacturable design using common filament materials (PLA, PETG, TPU)
The design must feature mostly 3D-printed components or use components commonly found in Ghana
The final design must be able to reach the accepted pressure of 500-600 mmHg for a vacuum assisted delivery.
The device must only lose 25% of the pressure after 1 minute to meet performance goals.
CHALLENGES
Risk Reduction of Vacuum Chamber - Leakage Test - Iteration 1
Permeability of Printed Walls: The primary challenge in 3D printing a vacuum pump is preventing pressure loss directly through the solid walls of the components.
Micro-Gaps from FDM Printing: The layer-by-layer process of commercially available FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printers inherently creates microscopic gaps that compromise the system's pneumatic integrity.
Overhang Constraints: Due to the physical limitations of FDM printing, the design must minimize structural overhangs to print successfully.
Multi-Part Assembly: To accommodate these overhang limits, the pump cannot be printed as a single continuous unit and must be divided into multiple separate pieces.
Increased Risk of Vacuum Loss: Connecting these multiple pieces introduces additional seams and joints, creating more potential areas for vacuum loss.
DESIGN SOLUTIONS
To help mitigate pressure loss, extensive risk reduction was performed to ensure vacuum retention. Through these risk reduction tests vacuum loss was able to be reduced significanly. Components were printed on Bambu Labs printers using Bambu Studios as the made slicer program. Tuning settings such as extrusion flow rate, travel speed, and wall loops aided in reducing micro-gaps. In addition, unconventional solutions were used such as the application of beeswax on seams and using coconut oil as lubricant. Using common materials provides accessibility to communities that don't have access to industrial components.
Iterations 1-3 of PETG Prototype Vacuum Chambers
Iterations 1-3 of TPU Vacuum Chambers
Vacuum Chamber Print Settings: The second vacuum chamber iteration of TPU was printed focusing on airtightness settings to improve layer bonding, reduce leakage paths, and strengthen the chamber walls.
Quality →
Seam Position: Random
Ironing
Ironing Type: Top Surfaces
Ironing Pattern: Rectilinear
Strength →
Wall Loops: 4
Top/bottom shells
Top shell layers: 6
Sparse Infill
Sparse Infill Density: 100%
Sparse Infill Pattern: Rectinliner
Advanced
Infill/ Wall overlap 50%
Travel Speed →
Travel: 200
Support →
Type: tree (auto)
Advanced Filament:
Filament →
Flow ratio: 1.05
Setting Overrides →
Length: N/A
Control:
Nozzle temperature: 230℃
Bed temperature: 50℃
Vacuum Chamber Results: Chamber V2 held vacuum from 600 to 450 mmHg for 4:14 min and maintained vacuum for a total of 27:20 min, showing the best results of airtightness. These print settings were then used for the prototype and final chamber designs.
Additional Documentation: Design solution documentation was also created to track iterations of the vacuum chamber, suction cup, and valves, including material choice, print settings, design changes, and test results. This record helped guide future prints by identifying settings and procedures that produced more reliable airtight seals in TPU and PETG components.
FINAL PRESENTATION
Final Design Review Slides .pdfPOSTER
FINAL_Team15_MAE 156B_C00_S26.pptx.pdfPage updated
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