Inkjet Meniscus Pressure Control

Most inkjet systems require careful pressure control of the ink inside the printhead to maximise print performance and quality, and to avoid downtime associated with printhead maintenance - for example, following bubble ingestion or a 'wet out' event. Disc Pump offers pulsation free output and high-precision control, allowing accurate and precise vacuum levels to be delivered. Further, it is small enough to be directly integrated with the printhead, enabling a modular approach with vacuum levels delivered tailored for each head.

Issues with conventional pressure control systems

  • Ink wetting out / dripping at print head or air being ingested into head
  • Poor print quality due to variation in droplet volume and throw (direction, velocity).

Causes

  • Incorrect vacuum resulting from control challenges & single pump system across multiple heads
  • Unstable vacuum resulting from pump pulsation
  • Poor system reaction times resulting from slow-responding pumps.

Solutions offered by Disc Pump

  • Pulsation-free output enables maintenance of stable vacuum set point
  • Millisecond control speed allows rapid response to set point changes - and ability to response to sudden changes in measured pressure (e.g. as may follow from wet out / ingestion events) to limit impact on print performance
  • High-precision pressure control

System Optimisation

  • Disc pump’s size and performance enables the creation of modular systems (single pump per head). This allows the pressure to be fine-tuned per print-head to maximise performance and print quality

Graph shows rapid response time and high-precision pressure control possible with Disc Pump

LEE Ventus pumps work well for inkjet meniscus pressure control, enabling us to achieve improved pressure control within a compact form-factor.

Simon Kew, Managing Director of Alchemie Technology