Inkjet Ink Characterisation

Viscosity, dispersions, jetting & surfaces

Monday 8 - Tuesday 9 April, 2019

Crowne Plaza Hotel - City Alster, Hamburg, Germany

COURSE FOCUS

Development of high quality inks and fluids for inkjet applications requires state-of-the-art characterisation equipment and techniques. From fundamental ink properties such as viscosity and surface tension, which have a crucial impact on jetting performance, through analysis of particulates dispersed within the ink, understanding these properties is key to getting the best out of an ink development project. In addition, it is vital to understand how the developed ink actually behaves, both on ejection from the printhead and when landing onto the substrate of choice.

The Inkjet Ink Characterisation course gives an excellent introduction to these essential areas of study, presented by industry experts from leading suppliers and institutions in the field. The course will give you the basic foundations as well as a more detailed understanding of the vital equipment and techniques.

Live Demonstrations

As part of the course, there will be demonstrations using a JetXpert drop visualisation system - your chance to see the system in action.

COURSE OUTLINE

MONDAY 8 april 2019

12:30 - 13:30 Registration

13:30 Course begins

Jetting and print quality analysis
Paul Best, ImageXpert

  • Introduction to drop analysis

  • How is in-flight analysis used

    • Drop formation

    • Reliability

    • Misting

    • Nozzle-to-nozzle consistency

    • Drop measurement

  • Simple application examples

  • Overview of techniques

  • Fundamental measurements

  • Practical demonstration

  • Introduction to print quality analysis

  • How is print quality analysis used

    • Dot properties

    • Line properties

    • Solid area quality

    • Colour registration

    • Ink interaction

  • Overview of techniques

  • Practical examples

17:00 Session ends

18:00 - 19:00 Reception

Join us for beers, wines and good company!

tuesday 9 April 2019

09:00 Course begins

Optimising ink rheology for printing applications
Mats Larsson, Malvern Panalytical

  • Understanding the importance of fluid rheology for inkjet printing

  • Basic rheology theory - viscosity and viscoelasticity

  • Rheological test methods for inkjet inks and processes

  • Practical examples

Basic property measurements - surface tension
Dr Thomas Willers, KRÜSS

  • Surface tension - introduction

  • Relevance to droplet formation and spreading in inkjet printing

  • Interplay of surface tension and viscosity in drop formation

  • Impacts on wetting

  • How to optimise ink-substrate adhesion and spreading

  • Interfacial rheology and its relevance to drying

  • Theories and methods of measurement - compared and contrasted

  • Application examples from inkjet industry

12:30 - 13:30 Lunch

13:30 Travel to KRÜSS laboratory

KRÜSS Laboratory Visit

The visit will consist of a laboratory tour, and interactive demonstration of the following:

  • Fully automatic determination of surface and interfacial tension using

    • force tensiometry

    • drop shape analysis (pendant drop method)

  • Dynamic surface tension measurement using the bubble pressure method

  • Contact angle measurement using the Wilhemy-Method

  • Optical contact angle measurement

  • Mobile fully automatic determination of a substrate’s surface free energy

  • Optical contact angle and wetting analysis of pl-size droplets

  • Contact angle from the top: measuring the CA in cavities

  • Novel liquid needle dosing technique for optical contact angle measurements

  • Interfacial rheology using the oscillating drop method

17:00 Course ends & Return to the hotel

COURSE LEADERS

Paul Best, Director of Engineering
ImageXpert, USA

Paul is Director of Engineering at ImageXpert Inc. and lives in Nashua, NH USA. Prior to joining ImageXpert Paul worked as an Optical Engineer and Team Lead at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. Paul received his Bachelor’s degree in in Mathematics and Computer Science from Wheaton College, and his Master’s degree in Physics from California State University, Los Angeles.

Mats Larsson, Technical Product Specialist - Rheology
Malvern Panalytical, Sweden

Since 2010, Mats has been responsible for technical and application support to customers for the Malvern rheometers product line. He is also involved in rheology training and seminars.

Dr Thomas Willers, Head of Applications & Science
KRÜSS, Germany

Dr Thomas Willers studied physics in Cologne and Barcelona. He received his PhD degree in experimental physics at the University of Cologne. In 2012 he joined KRÜSS GmbH at its headquarters in Hamburg where he is now head of the department for Applications & Science. He is responsible for the KRÜSS Application Labs as well as teaching activities and now has more than five years’ experience in teaching surface science.

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