Fluid Dynamics & Acoustics

How inkjet printing really works

Monday 20 - Tuesday 21 June, 2016

Heidelberg Print Media Academy, Heidelberg, Germany

COURSE FOCUS

Inkjet printing is a process of depositing on demand small droplets with a specified volume onto a precise location on a substrate. This definition covers a wide variety of applications like document printing, label printing, 3D printing, and functional applications like patterning of displays and biosensors. During the course we follow the ink all the way through the printhead, through droplet formation and onto landing on the substrate.

The course is mainly restricted to piezo-driven printheads jetting Newtonian inks, although the issue of viscoelastic inks will be discussed. A piezo-driven printhead is a set of acoustic cavities, the characteristics of which will be presented in the time (response to waveforms) and frequency domain.

The course is based on precise descriptions of the physical phenomena involved and on the derivation of the mathematical framework needed to solve the governing equations. Where possible the outcomes will be compared with experimental findings. Different mathematical methods will be presented to calculate the responses of different systems in the frequency and time domain. To describe correctly the behaviour of a printhead with a large number of narrow pitched nozzles, the long duct theory will be presented.

The aim of this course is to couple the characteristics of droplet formation and landing, spreading and permeation to the acoustics and microfluidics of the printhead. The knowledge conveyed during the course will enable the participants to analyse the behaviour of a wide variety of existing printheads and to support the development of new printheads and inks from a physics point of view.

COURSE OUTLINE

Course Leader