Fluid sharing system design
Pump design
The design of the pump is the most important in this project because the performance of the pump decides the performance of the whole actuation system. To control the flow precisely, reducing the internal leaking is required. On the other hand, to reduce gaps between the rotors and casing causes the increasing of the friction between them. In addition, because we use alcohol instead of oil as the working fluid, we cannot expect the lubrication by oil. Moreover, we should consider fabrication methods using affordable materials and parts. At the maximum to reduce the friction without internal leaking, the pump incorporates thin ball bearings and oil-less slide plates.
The basic mechanism was the same as usual rotary pumps but the structure was redesigned to make the pump small and easy to fabricate. The pump also incorporates many commercial parts.
You can download .step file of the pump design (Download CAD data).