Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing

Due to its outstanding properties, ultraviolet (UV) ink is currently a major ink type used in 3D inkjet printing applications and additive manufacturing (AM) in general. However, there exists a major challenge which has to be addressed and overcome, namely the agglomeration issue, which can potentia...

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Main Authors: Suphanat, Aphinyan, Yeo, Jingjie, Ng, Teng Yong, Geethalakshmi, Kanuvakkarai Rangaswamy
Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2016
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84363
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/41781
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-843632020-09-24T20:14:33Z Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing Suphanat, Aphinyan Yeo, Jingjie Ng, Teng Yong Geethalakshmi, Kanuvakkarai Rangaswamy School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Progress in Additive Manufacturing (Pro-AM 2016) Singapore Centre for 3D Printing UV Ink Agglomeration Due to its outstanding properties, ultraviolet (UV) ink is currently a major ink type used in 3D inkjet printing applications and additive manufacturing (AM) in general. However, there exists a major challenge which has to be addressed and overcome, namely the agglomeration issue, which can potentially lead to nozzle clogging. To understand the underlying physics and chemistry of the agglomeration phenomenon, numerical characterisation provides a low-cost high resolution solution, if the correct numerical methodology is appropriately exploited. F or this meso-scale agglomeration problem, dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a highly suitable simulation technique, and in this preliminary study, the commercial solver Material Studio 8.0 from Accelrys Inc is utilized. Here, the coarse-grained models are generated by directly coarse-grained from the atomistic model. Commercial UV inks used in AM applications today are usually composed of oligomers, monomers, photo-initiators, pigments, and other additives such as stabilizers and surfactants. Among these components. oligomers have the highest tendency to agglomerate, which can agitate the stability and quality of the printing fluid, and possibly lead to nozzle clogging. Specifically we study and examine the morphological characteristics of an UV ink composing of photopolymers of polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the main components in the simulation model. In this case, styrene is chosen as it is one of the most prevalent commercial photopolymers in present 3D inkjet applications, while ethylene glycol is a photopolymers known to improve ink viscosity. The preliminary results for different models considered show that the kind of photopolymers and their constituent ratios affect the agglomeration morphology of the system, and the existence of both oligomers and monomers results in mutual morphological benefits against agglomeration. The results also reveal the importance of other additives in the ink composition to prevent, reduce and control various forms of agglomeration to achieve enhanced print quality. ASTAR (Agency for Sci., Tech. and Research, S’pore) Published version 2016-12-09T03:59:57Z 2019-12-06T15:43:36Z 2016-12-09T03:59:57Z 2019-12-06T15:43:36Z 2016 Conference Paper Suphanat, A., Geethalakshmi, K. R., Yeo, J., & Ng, T. Y. (2016). Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Progress in Additive Manufacturing (Pro-AM 2016), 519-524. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84363 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/41781 en © 2016 by Pro-AM 2016 Organizers. Published by Research Publishing, Singapore 6 p. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic UV Ink
Agglomeration
spellingShingle UV Ink
Agglomeration
Suphanat, Aphinyan
Yeo, Jingjie
Ng, Teng Yong
Geethalakshmi, Kanuvakkarai Rangaswamy
Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing
description Due to its outstanding properties, ultraviolet (UV) ink is currently a major ink type used in 3D inkjet printing applications and additive manufacturing (AM) in general. However, there exists a major challenge which has to be addressed and overcome, namely the agglomeration issue, which can potentially lead to nozzle clogging. To understand the underlying physics and chemistry of the agglomeration phenomenon, numerical characterisation provides a low-cost high resolution solution, if the correct numerical methodology is appropriately exploited. F or this meso-scale agglomeration problem, dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) is a highly suitable simulation technique, and in this preliminary study, the commercial solver Material Studio 8.0 from Accelrys Inc is utilized. Here, the coarse-grained models are generated by directly coarse-grained from the atomistic model. Commercial UV inks used in AM applications today are usually composed of oligomers, monomers, photo-initiators, pigments, and other additives such as stabilizers and surfactants. Among these components. oligomers have the highest tendency to agglomerate, which can agitate the stability and quality of the printing fluid, and possibly lead to nozzle clogging. Specifically we study and examine the morphological characteristics of an UV ink composing of photopolymers of polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) as the main components in the simulation model. In this case, styrene is chosen as it is one of the most prevalent commercial photopolymers in present 3D inkjet applications, while ethylene glycol is a photopolymers known to improve ink viscosity. The preliminary results for different models considered show that the kind of photopolymers and their constituent ratios affect the agglomeration morphology of the system, and the existence of both oligomers and monomers results in mutual morphological benefits against agglomeration. The results also reveal the importance of other additives in the ink composition to prevent, reduce and control various forms of agglomeration to achieve enhanced print quality.
author2 School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
author_facet School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Suphanat, Aphinyan
Yeo, Jingjie
Ng, Teng Yong
Geethalakshmi, Kanuvakkarai Rangaswamy
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Suphanat, Aphinyan
Yeo, Jingjie
Ng, Teng Yong
Geethalakshmi, Kanuvakkarai Rangaswamy
author_sort Suphanat, Aphinyan
title Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing
title_short Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing
title_full Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing
title_fullStr Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing
title_full_unstemmed Dissipative Particle Dynamics Study of Ultraviolet Ink Agglomeration in 3D Inkjet Printing
title_sort dissipative particle dynamics study of ultraviolet ink agglomeration in 3d inkjet printing
publishDate 2016
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/84363
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/41781
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