Material Jetting

Dr. Aamer Nazir

ASTM F42 has classified AM in to 7 different ways
SLA
Vat Photo Polymerization
DLP
SLS
Powder Bed Fusion
SLM

AM Binder Jetting 3DP

Material Extrusion FDM
Material Jetting INKJET
DMD
Direct Energy Deposition
LENS
Sheet Lamination LOM

Different AM Process (Ref: NTUST) 2

Outline
Historical development of the inkjet printing industry

Introduction

How does Material Jetting work

Material for Jetting

Material Processing Fundamentals

MJ Process Modeling

Application of material jetting in Industry

 Historical Development of the Inkjet Industry
▪ Two-dimensional inkjet printing has been in existence since the 1960s, used for decades as a
method of printing documents and images from computers and other digital devices.
▪ Inkjet printing is now widely used in the desktop printing industry commercialized by
companies such as HP and Canon.
▪ Printing as a three-dimensional building method was first demonstrated in the1980s with
patents related to the development of Ballistic Particle Manufacturing, which involved simple
deposition of “particles” of material onto an article.

▪ The first commercially successful technology was

the Model Maker from Sanders Prototype(now Solid
scape), introduced in 1994, which printed a basic
wax material that was heated to liquid state
 Historical Development of the Inkjet Industry
▪ In 1996, 3D Systems joined the competition with the introduction of the Actua 2100, another
wax-based printing machine. The Actua was revised in 1999 and marketed as the ThermoJet.
▪ In 2001, Sanders Design International briefly entered the market with its Rapid Tool Maker,
but was quickly restrained due to intellectual property conflicts with Solid scape.
▪ More recently, the focus of development has been on the deposition of acrylate photopolymer,
where in droplets of liquid monomer are formed and then exposed to ultraviolet light to
promote polymerization.
▪ Both machines jetted a photopolymer using print heads with over 1,500 nozzles . In 2003, 3D
Systems launched a competing technology with its In Vision 3D printer.
▪ Multi-Jet Modeling, the printing system used in this machine, was actually an extension of the
technology developed with the ThermoJet line, despite the change in material solidification
strategy.
 Introduction: 2D Printer (Laser Printing)
Laser Printing Technology
▪ A laser printer is a type of printer that uses a laser beam to produce
high-quality text and graphics on paper. It works by using a
combination of electrostatically charged toner and a heated fuser to
transfer the toner onto the paper. Laser printers are known for their
fast-printing speeds, sharp output, and reliability.
▪ The main difference between a laser printer and an inkjet printer lies
in the printing technology they use. While laser printers use a toner
cartridge and a laser beam to transfer toner onto paper, inkjet printers
use liquid ink sprayed through tiny nozzles onto the paper. Laser
printers are typically faster and produce sharper text, while inkjet
printers are generally more affordable upfront and can print in color
with greater accuracy.
 Introduction: 2D Printer (Inkjet Printing)
Inkjet Printing Technology
▪ An inkjet printer is a type of printer that creates images by
propelling droplets of ink onto paper. This type of printer is
commonly used for printing documents, photos, and other
graphics. Inkjet printers are popular for their ability to produce
high-quality, vibrant prints at a relatively low cost.
▪ In the inkjet printing mechanism, the print head has several
tiny nozzles, also called jets. As the paper moves past the print
head, the nozzles spray the ink onto it, forming the characters
and images.
▪ Two common types of inkjet printing:
Bubble Jet
Ink jet
 Introduction: 2D Printer (Inkjet Printing)
The difference between an inkjet printer and a Bubble Jet printer is that a Bubble Jet printer
makes use of certain heating elements to prepare the ink (heating ink droplets, causing them
to form bubbles that expand, and propel the ink onto the paper surface) whereas an inkjet
printer makes use of piezoelectric crystals to which an electric current is applied (This
causes the crystals to expand, forcing ink onto a substrate. When the current is removed, the
crystal shrinks again, drawing up ink into the printer head).
 2D Printer: How Inkjet Printer Work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yeZSaigBj4
 Material Jetting
▪ Material Jetting (MJ) is an AM process that operates in
a similar fashion to 2D printers. In MJ, a printhead
(similar to the printheads used for standard inkjet
printing) dispenses droplets of a photosensitive
material that solidifies under ultraviolet (UV) light,
building a part layer-by-layer.

▪ The materials used in MJ are thermoset photopolymers

(acrylics) that come in a liquid form, resins, various
simulated plastic & rubber.

▪ Print head (just like in inkjets) deposits droplets of

resin that is cured instantly with UV Platform moves
down, process repeats.
 3D Printing Technologies: Material Jetting (PolyJet)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi0JEhGqTuU
Material Jetting
 How does Material Jetting work
1. First, the liquid resin is heated to 30 - 60oC to
achieve optimal viscosity for printing.
2. Then the print head travels over the build
platform and hundreds of tiny droplets of
photopolymer are jetted/deposited to the
desired locations.
3. A UV light source that is attached to the print
head cures the deposited material, solidifying it
and creating the first layer of the part.
4. After the layer is complete, the build platform
moves downwards one layer height, and the
process repeats until the whole part is complete.
 Material Jetting: Process Workflow
▪ Unlike most other 3D printing technologies, MJ deposits material in a line-wise fashion.
Multiple inkjet print heads are attached to same carrier side-by-side and deposit material on the
whole print surface in a single pass.
▪ This allows different heads to dispense different material, so multi-material printing, full-color
printing and dispensing of dissolvable support structures is straightforward and widely used.
Support structures are always required in material jetting and need post-processing to be
removed.
▪ In Material Jetting, the liquid material is solidified through a process called photo
polymerization.
▪ This is the same mechanism that is used in SLA. Similarly to SLA, material jetted parts
have homogeneous mechanical and thermal properties, but unlike SLA they do not require
additional post-curing to achieve their optimal properties, due to the very small layer height
used.
 How does Material Jetting work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Som3CddHfZE&t=22s
 Material Jetting: Process Workflow

Credits: Aamer Nazir, NTUST

Material Jetting: Multi-material & Full-colour

Multi-material & Full-color printing

Material Jetting: Multi-material & Full-colour
Patterned color
 PolyJet Multi-material Technology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS1y2N3lYHw
 Stratasys Connex3 PolyJet Technology | Multi-Material and Colour 3D Printing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1sOdZqwn5Y
 Materials for Jetting
▪ Most commercial AM machines use waxy polymers and
acrylic photopolymers.
▪ Viscosity is the most problematic aspect for the drop
formation in material jetting.
▪ To facilitate jetting, materials that are solid at room
temperature must be heated so that they liquefy.
▪ For high viscosity fluids, the viscosity of the fluid must
be lowered by using heat or adding solvents or other low
viscosity components.
▪ It is also possible that in some polymer deposition cases
shear thinning might occur, depending upon the material
or solution in use.
Materials for Jetting
▪ While industry players have so far introduced printing machines that use waxy
polymers and acrylic photopolymers exclusively, research groups around the world
have experimented with the potential for printing machines that could build in those
and other materials.
▪ Among those materials most studied and most promising for future applications are
1. Polymers
2. Ceramics, and
3. Metals
Materials for Jetting: Polymer
▪ Polymers consist of an enormous class of materials, representing a wide range of
mechanical properties and applications.
▪ And although polymers are the only material currently used in commercial AM
machines, According to some published scientific literature polymer inkjet production
of macro three-dimensional structures.
✓ Gao and Sonin present the first notable academic study of the deposition and
solidification of groups of molten polymer micro drops. They discuss findings related
to three modes of deposition:
1. Columnar,
2. Sweep (linear), and
3. Repeated sweep (vertical walls).
Materials for Jetting: Polymer

(a)
(b)
(a) Columnar formation and (b) line formation as functions of droplet impingement frequency
Materials for Jetting: Polymer
▪ For low droplet speeds, low sweep speeds created discontinuous deposition and high
sweep speeds created continuous lines.
▪ High droplet impact speed led to splashing at high sweep speeds and line bulges at low
sweep speeds.
▪ From these studies, it is clear that process variables affect the quality of the deposit
such as
1. Print head speed,
2. Droplet velocity, and
3. Droplet frequency
Materials for Jetting: Polymer

Results of varying sweep and impact speeds

An example of the result, a 2.5-
dimensional gear
Materials for Jetting: Ceramics

▪ As in the case of polymers, studies have been conducted that investigate the basic
effects of modifying sweep speed, drop-to-drop spacing, substrate material, line
spacing, and simple multilayer forms in the deposition of ceramics.

▪ These experiments were conducted with a mixture of zirconia powder, solvent, and
other additives, which was printed from a 62 μm nozzle onto substrates 6.5mm away.

▪ The authors found that on substrates that permitted substantial spreading of the
deposited materials, neighboring drops would merge to form single, larger shapes,
whereas on other substrates the individual dots would remain independent.
Materials for Jetting: Ceramics

Droplets on two different substrates

Sintered zirconia vertical walls

Sintered alumina impeller

Materials for Jetting: Metals

▪ Much of the printing work related to metals has focused upon the use of printing for
electronics applications—formation of traces, connections, and soldering.

▪ Liu and Orme present an overview of the progress made in solder droplet deposition for
the electronics industry. Because solder has a low melting point, it is an obvious choice as
a material for printing.

▪ They reported use of droplets of 25–500 μm, with results such as the IC test board in Fig.
3.5, which has 70 μm droplets of Sn63/Pb37. In related work, a solder was jetted whose
viscosity was approximately 1.3 cp, continuously jetted under a pressure of 138 kPa.
Materials for Jetting: Metals

IC test board with solder droplets NanoParticle Jetting process. Clip via XJET
Materials for Jetting: Parts

Examples of parts
fabricated with metal Material Jetted metal part Material Jetted ceramics parts
printing

Cross-section of an optical AM produced ceramic functional parts from Lithoz

waveguide bundle fabricated GmbH.218 The turbine wheel diameter is 10 mm.
 Material Processing Fundamentals
Technical Challenges of MJ
As evidenced by the industry and research applications discussed in the previous,
material jetting process already has a strong foothold in terms of becoming a successful
AM technology. There are, however, some serious technical shortcomings that have
prevented its development from further growth:
• Formulation of the liquid material
• Droplet formation
• Control of the deposition of these droplets
• Operational considerations also pose a challenge in process planning for MJ
Droplet Formation: Continuous Stream (CS)
Two common methods of discharge (i.e., the liquid exits nozzle−as
either a continuous column of liquid or as discrete droplets):

1- Continuous stream (CS)

A steady pressure is applied to the fluid reservoir, causing
a pressurized column of fluid to be ejected from the nozzle whether
they are needed for printing or not. After departing the nozzle, this
steady stream breaks into droplets due to Rayleigh instability (i.e.,
tendency of a perturbed stream of liquid to break up into drops).An
advantage of CS deposition is the high throughput rate; it
has therefore seen widespread use in applications such as food
and pharmaceutical labeling.
Droplet Formation: Drop-on-demand (DOD)
2- Drop-on-demand (DOD)

Single droplets are produced directly from CS DOD

the nozzle ONLY when needed for
the pattern. Droplets are formed only when
individual pressure pulses in the
nozzle cause the fluid to be expelled;
these pressure pulses are created at specific
times by thermal,
electrostatic, piezoelectric, acoustic, or
other actuators.​​
At present, all commercial MJ machine
utilize DOD print head.
Droplet Formation: Drop-on-demand (DOD)
Actuation energy is typically in the form of heating (bubble-jet) or vibration of
a piezoelectric actuator:
▪ Thermal: household printing (lower cost).
▪ Piezo: industrial printing (more controllable, don’t need high vapor pressure).
Pulse shape is critical to consistent droplet ejection.
 Application and Machines of MJ in Industry
The three main companies involved in the
development of the RP printing industry are still
the main players offering printing-based
machines:
1. Solid scape,
2. 3DSystems
3. Stratasys

MJ Metal Production System

Stratasys Objet350 Connex3

Multi-material 3D printer
Application and Machines of MJ in Industry
Shoes Industry

PolyJet 3D Printing
Application and Machines of MJ in Industry
Automotive Industry
Application and Machines of MJ in Industry
Plastic Products
Application and Machines of MJ in Industry
Commercially available printing-based AM machines
 Polyjet 3D Printing Application Overview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnc1X3WDxXg
 Advantages and Drawbacks of MJ
Advantages Drawbacks
▪ Material Jetting is low cost, high speed and scalability than ▪ The Choice of materials to date is limited Only
other AM machines, particularly the ones that use lasers. waxes and photopolymers are commercially
▪ Material jetting can produce smooth parts with surfaces available.
comparable to injection molding and very high dimensional ▪ Part accuracy, particularly for large parts, is
accuracy. generally not as good as with some other
▪ Parts created with Material Jetting have homogeneous processes.
mechanical and thermal properties. ▪ Material jetted parts are mainly suitable for non-
▪ The multi-material capabilities of MJ enables the creation of functional prototypes, as they have poor
accurate visual and haptic prototypes. mechanical properties (low elongation at
break).
▪ Ease of building parts in multiple materials, and The
capability of printing colors. ▪ MJ materials are photosensitive, and their
mechanical properties degrade over time.
▪ In general, printing machines can be assembled from standard
components (drives, stages, print heads), while other ▪ The high cost of the technology may make
machines have many more machine-specific components. Material Jetting financially not viable for some
applications.