Inkjet Printing Resolution Study for Multi-Material Rapid Prototyping

In addition to its application in media printing, inkjet printing is becoming an increasingly attractive option for the distribution and patterning of materials for a wide variety of applications. In this study a commercial inkjet printer was modified to study the resolution of fluid dot placement required to fabricate 3D multi-material patterns layer by layer. A Java-based computer program was developed to convert stereolithography (STL) data layer by layer, control ink cartridges individually and print ink with customized fluid dot placement arrangements. The study found that complement printing between nozzles which are 30µm in diameter and 144µm apart is essential to achieve a sufficiently dense 3D pattern. When printed with 36µm vertical spacing a layer thickness of 1.30µm is achievable, and when printing layer by layer, the thickness increases almost at a linear rate.