Squeeze-Type Piezoelectric Inkjet Printhead Actuating Waveform Design Method Based on Numerical Simulation and Experiment

Abstract

The piezoelectric inkjet printing technique has been commonly used to produce conductive graphics. In this paper, a trapezoidal waveform design method for squeeze-type piezoelectric inkjet printhead is presented to provide a modified steady ejection and optimal droplet shape, in which a coupled multi-physics model of a piezoelectric inkjet printhead is developed. This research describes the effects of parameters, including rising time tr, falling time tf, and dwelling time td, of the trapezoidal waveform on the pressure at the nozzle through numerical simulations. These parameters are initially optimized based on numerical simulations and further optimized based on experimental results. When the printhead is actuated by the optimized waveform with the tr = 5 µs, td = 10 µs, and tf = 2 µs, the droplets are in optimal shape, and their size is about half the diameter of the nozzle. The experimental results validate the efficacy of this waveform design method, which combines numerical simulation and experiment, as well as demonstrating that ink droplet formation can be studied from the point of pressure variation at the nozzle.