Entrapped air bubbles in piezo-driven inkjet printing: Their effect on the droplet velocity

Jos de Jong, Roger Jeurissen, Huub Borel, Marc van den Berg, Herman Wijshoff, Hans Reinten, Michel Versluis, Andrea Prosperetti, Detlef Lohse

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

65 Citations (Scopus)
146 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Air bubbles entrapped in the ink channel are a major problem in piezo-driven inkjet printing. They grow by rectified diffusion and eventually counteract the pressure buildup at the nozzle, leading to a breakdown of the jetting process. Experimental results on the droplet velocity udrop as a function of the equilibrium radius R0 of the entrained bubble are presented. Surprisingly, udrop(R0) shows a pronounced maximum around R0 = 17 μm before it sharply drops to zero around R0 = 19 μm. A simple one-dimensional model is introduced to describe this counterintuitive behavior which turns out to be a resonance effect of the entrained bubble.
Original languageEnglish
Article number121511
Number of pages7
JournalPhysics of fluids
Volume18
Issue number12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2006

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