Numerical study of surface agglomeration of ultraviolet‐polymeric ink and its control during 3D nano‐inkjet printing process

Abstract

There is a pressing need in very small scale three‐dimensional (3D) inkjet printing to control and reduce agglomeration, as agglomeration often leads to nozzle clogging. While agglomeration within ultraviolet ink has been studied, there has been, to our knowledge, no extensive studies conducted for surface agglomeration of the ink on nozzle's wall. This numerical study therefore focuses on investigating if surfactants can effectively control surface agglomeration during nanodroplet formation. Many‐body dissipative particle dynamics is the numerical method of choice here. We found that small amount of surfactant of about 1 wt % is sufficient to effectively reduce ink deposition on the nozzle's wall. However, by using the properties of a commercially available surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate, it was found that the maximum reduction achieved by its addition is only 60%. Thus, further physical or chemical deagglomeration techniques are required, and we show that by considering these other techniques, reduction of surface agglomeration to nearly 92% can be achieved. Finally, we found that adding surfactants has the additional benefit of improving total kinetic energy of the ink compositions, lowering possibility of agglomerations within the ink. It also raises the nanodroplet velocity while reducing nanodroplet breakup time, which can help speed up the process of 3D printing process. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2018, 56, 1615–1624

Data‐Driven Approaches Toward Smarter Additive Manufacturing

“…For instance, the agglomeration of ultraviolet ink fluid and the effects of surfactants in 3D nanoinkjet printing were examined with DPD and MDPD. [56,57] Similar methods were also used to study nanodroplet formation in 3D nanoinkjet printing. [58] CGMD was also used to simulate the 3D polymer printing process known as continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) for identifying the factors influencing the fidelity during the manufacturing process.…”

Morphology of Models Manufactured by SLM Technology and the Ti6Al4V Titanium Alloy Designed for Medical Applications

“…It is crucial for 3D printing production of high-quality models expressed by dimensional and shape accuracy, surface texture parameters, mechanical strength, abrasive wear resistance, etc., to consider the so-called process-control [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Process-control takes into account the analysis of many technological parameters depending on the 3D printing technology, such as: thickness of the fabricated layer, temperature of the build chamber, speed and power of the laser, diameter of the focused beam, printing nozzle diameter, format and accuracy of the digital file before printing, and many other parameters with a direct impact on the quality of the fabricated model.…”