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  4. Laser-assisted inkjet printing of highly viscous fluids with sub-nozzle resolution
 
conference paper

Laser-assisted inkjet printing of highly viscous fluids with sub-nozzle resolution

Delrot, Paul  
•
Modestino, Miguel A.
•
Psaltis, Demetri  
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Gu, B
•
Helvajian, H
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2016
Laser 3D Manufacturing Iii
Conference on Laser 3D Manufacturing III

Drop-on-demand inkjet printing is mostly based on thermal and piezo-actuation, allowing for densely packed nozzles in inkjet printers. However, the droplet diameter is typically defined by the nozzle diameter, thus limiting the range of viscosity that can be jetted to 10-100 mPa. s to prevent nozzle clogging. Here, we present a laser-assisted system for the delivery of micro-droplets of highly viscous fluids with sub-nozzle resolution. Highly focused supersonic jets have recently been demonstrated by focusing a nanosecond pulse of light into a micro-capillary filled with dyed water, hence generating a cavitation bubble. The consequent pressure wave impact on the concave free surface of the liquid generated flow-focused micro-jets. We implemented this technique for the production of low velocity micro-droplets with photopolymer inks of increasing viscosity (0.6-148 mPa. s) into a 300 mu m-wide glass capillary using low laser energies (3-70 mu J). Time-resolved imaging provided details on the droplet generation. Single micro-droplets of diameter 70-80 mu m were produced on demand with inks of viscosity 0.6-9 mPa. s with good controllability and reproducibility, thus enabling to print two-dimensional patterns with a precision of 13 mu m. Furthermore, the primary droplet produced with the most viscous fluid was about 66% of the capillary diameter. Preliminary results also showed that the process is linearly scalable to narrower capillaries (100-200 mu m), thus paving the way for a compact laser-assisted inkjet printer. A possible application of the device would be additive manufacturing as the printed patterns could be consequently cured.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
conference paper
DOI
10.1117/12.2210833
Web of Science ID

WOS:000380605700004

Author(s)
Delrot, Paul  
Modestino, Miguel A.
Psaltis, Demetri  
Moser, Christophe  
Editors
Gu, B
•
Helvajian, H
•
Pique, A
Date Issued

2016

Publisher

Spie-Int Soc Optical Engineering

Publisher place

Bellingham

Published in
Laser 3D Manufacturing Iii
ISBN of the book

978-1-62841-973-3

Total of pages

7

Series title/Series vol.

Proceedings of SPIE

Volume

9738

Start page

973805

Subjects

inkjet printing

•

drop-on-demand

•

additive manufacturing

•

polymers

•

flow-focusing

•

laser-assisted

•

direct-writing

•

non-newtonian

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LAPD  
LO  
Event nameEvent placeEvent date
Conference on Laser 3D Manufacturing III

San Francisco, CA

FEB 15-18, 2016

Available on Infoscience
October 18, 2016
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/130088
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