Design, Development and Experimental Investigation of E-jet Based Additive Manufacturing Process

Abstract

Electrohydrodynamic ink jet (E-Jet) printing is a non-contact mask less micro fabrication technique, where the flow of functional material in the form of ink is induced by electric field, rather than acoustic or thermal form of energy. This approach can be extended for high-resolution printing applications. In this paper an E-jet based additive manufacturing fabrication approach is demonstrated where user can print various functional materials with different ink substrate combinations. Limitations of the conventional ink jet technology, applications of this new emerging technology along with its potential market have also been discussed. A detailed description of the E-Jet printing technology is demonstrated. The effects of different operating parameters on process output variables have also been investigated in this study. Applied potential difference, stand-off height between the nozzle and the substrate and ink flow rate have been taken as operating parameters and printed droplet diameter and ejection frequency defines the printing performance characteristics. Experimentation results validate the potential of the aforementioned technology i.e. high resolution patterning of the functional material with micron range feature size.