Aspect Biosystems RX-1 Waste Tray

A simple waste tray for the Aspect Biosystems RX-1 Bioprinter. It has a large reservoir that is wide enough to sit under the entire width of a QUAD printhead, and fits snug around the magnetic vacuum chuck. There are variants with holders to hydrate an 'on deck' 6-well or 12-well Thincert membrane, and a variant with a clean deck. We leave the Thincert in its packaging to maintain sterility, and just fill the packaging with saline/buffer. The design can easily be mirrored in your slicer if you prefer the waste on the other side of the printer.

Aspect Biosystems RX-1 Bioprinter

If you use this design in a scientific manuscript, I only ask that you please state the design was received from Dr. Adrian West, cite this webpage, and send me a link to your published paper!

Print Settings

Printer: Ultimaker S3

Rafts: No

Supports: No

Resolution: 0.1 mm

Infill: 50%

Filament: Innofil/BASF Ultrafuse PET Transparent

A very easy print. No need for a brim or raft when printed in PET on Ultimaker glass with Magigoo Original coating.

The design needs to be watertight, so be careful to avoid under-extrusion, and make sure your slicer does not allow any gaps within your walls. In Cura, I set walls and top/bottom thickness to 1.2 mm, set 'Fill Gaps Between Walls' to 'Everywhere', and uncheck 'Filter Out Tiny Gaps'. I also set top/bottom line directions to 90/0 instead of the default 45/135 to ensure that layers under the waste tray are completed without seams.

I recommend printing in PET, which permits sanitisation with 70% EtOH and long term water exposure without fear of degradation. PC can also be used if you want to add a boiling step for additional sanitisation, but you would likely get warping on such a large flat square part. Either way, for the purposes of biosafety, I would consider this part non-sterile before use and biohazardous after use. Disposal should be by autoclaving with other solid waste.