The jetting process and spreading characteristics of the power-law fluids for material jetting process

Materials jetting, known as one of the 3D printing technologies, is widely applied in microelectronics packaging, biology and ceramic 3D printing due to its ability to print multi-materials by drop-on-demand. However, most of the materials are power-law fluids in 3D printing applications, the generation of satellites during the jetting process and droplet spreading characteristics are unclear and they have a great effect on the quality of the printout. In this paper, a common electromechanical and fluid-solid coupling model of the jet dispenser and observation platform of the jetting process are established. This modeling method is also suitable for other needle-driven jet dispensers. A commercial UV resin is adopted to study the jetting process of power-law fluid. To reveal the mechanism of satellite generation, the effects of input signals (rising time and falling time) on the dynamic characteristics of the needle and the jetting process are analyzed. On the basis thereof, the effectiveness of the optimal control parameters is demonstrated to eliminate satellites. In addition, the simulation and experimental results show that the falling time and fluid pressure can be controlled to adjust the spreading diameter and height of the droplet. Subsequently, the minimum line width of 0.276 mm is successfully printed with a nozzle of 0.07 mm.