Development of Ink-Particle Flight Simulation for Continuous Inkjet Printer

An ink-particle flight simulation method for industrial, continuous-type inkjet printers was developed to clarify the factors that influence the print distortion. Print distortion is produced by aerodynamic and electric interference between the ink-particles flying from the nozzle onto the print-target. The necessary functions to do this, such as the calculation of electrostatic force in the electric field between the electrodes, the Coulomb’s force from other charged ink-particles, and the drag force in the inkjet stream for many flying ink-particles were added to a Lagrangian method in the fluid dynamic analysis software that was used for the simulation. The trajectories of the ink-particles flying from this nozzle onto the print target and the air-flow caused by them were calculated simultaneously in the simulation. The simulation results for the velocities and trajectories of the flying ink-particles were compared with the experimental ones using a high-speed camera. These simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental ones, and this helps to clarify the factors that influence the print distortion.