A collapsing bubble-induced microinjector: an experimental study

In this study, a new drop-on-demand actuation mechanism, which uses an oscillating bubble as actuator is proposed and its feasibility is investigated via the consideration of two important design parameters, namely, bubble distance to free surface and nozzle dimension. The droplet ejection process captured using high-speed photography technique shows that such an actuation mechanism has interesting features and perhaps some advantages over the conventional ones (thermal bubble, piezoelectric, etc.) employed in inkjet printers such as the ejection of a droplet free of satellite droplets and others.