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Meniscus Motion Inside A DoD Inkjet Print-Head Nozzle

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Ravasio, Claudio S 
Hoath, Stephen D 
Martin, Graham D 
Boltryk, Peter 
Dorrestijn, Marko 

Abstract

A new study of the jetting performance for drop-on-demand (DoD) inkjet print heads investigated meniscus motions inside the transparent nozzles of MicroFab inkjet print heads. A composite image representation of the observed meniscus motions, imaged at high resolution using a spark flash light source, was developed for our subsequent analyses of the influences of drive voltage and pulse dwell time and also the ink properties. At higher drive voltages a slow damped refill (following de-pinning of the meniscus from the very edge of the nozzle exit) was also clearly observed. This and many other interesting phenomena were observed with the composite images: internal bubbles that progressed through the nozzle region over relatively long timescales, internal break-off of the jet from the meniscus surface, satellite formation and merging, and the contact line de-pinning not previously observed before.

Description

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the Society for Imaging Sciences and Technology via http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/ist/nipdf/2016/00002016/00000001/art00087

Keywords

Journal Title

32nd International Conference on Digital Printing Technologies (NIP): Printing for Fabrication 2016

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2169-4451

Volume Title

2016

Publisher

Society for Imaging Sciences and Technology

Publisher DOI

Publisher URL

Sponsorship
This research was performed by CSR under the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) scheme, within the University of Cambridge Inkjet Research Centre, funded by Xaar Ltd. SDH supervised and held an EPSRC Impact Acceleration Knowledge Transfer Fellowship (grant no. EP/K5037574/1) for working with a Xaar R&D team during the initial part of this project.