Nonaxisymmetric Effects in Drop-On-Demand Piezoacoustic Inkjet Printing

Mark Jan van der Meulen (Corresponding author), Hans Reinten, Herman Wijshoff, Michel Versluis, Detlef Lohse, Paul Steen (Corresponding author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet printing is well characterized and a well-studied problem, but nonaxisymmetric effects are typically ignored, while these effects can severely reduce the print-head performance and its stability. In this paper we first review nonaxisymmetric droplet formation originating from geometrical effects. We then focus on the possibility that observed nonaxisymmetry arises from surface instabilities of the meniscus by a Rayleigh-Taylor-like (RT) mechanism. It is shown theoretically that the meniscus can become RT unstable beyond a critical acceleration. A comparison with data extracted from high-speed recordings of the meniscus oscillations show that the critical accelerations are exceeded. Using the time duration that the critical acceleration is exceeded and the maximal growth rate, the extent of growth of the unstable wave is estimated.

Original languageEnglish
Article number054071
Number of pages12
JournalPhysical Review Applied
Volume13
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 28 May 2020

Funding

We thank Maaike Rump for assistance with the layout of the figures. P.S. thanks PoF for kind hospitality and the Dutch Research Centre of Fluid and Solid Mechanics (FSM) for supporting his visit to the University of Twente PoF. P.S. also thanks NSF CBET 1637960 for support during preparation of manuscript.

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