Inkjet printing of ceramic colloidal suspensions: Filament growth and breakup

Filament growth and breakup are investigated in the context of ceramic inkjet printing. Several inks were formulated and ejected on a printer dedicated to ceramic materials. They consisted of six colloidal inks, four simple fluids and two graphic inks. For each, stroboscopic snapshots were acquired and the filament shape was extracted and analysed, for different nozzle actuation pulses. The filament length and the thread minimum radius were measured during the ejection process. A scaling of the breakup time with the Rayleigh number was obtained, as well as a general behaviour for the filament growth rate during the ejection process. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.