Challenges in High Resolution Inkjet Printing

Inkjet printing is a technology that is familiar to anyone who has a personal computer at home as a convenient way of printing text and photographic images. In addition to this application, inkjet printing is a versatile manufacturing tool with a range of applications ranging from the industrial printing of barcodes and security marking to low cost printed electronics, solar cells and biosensors. It is also a long established method for 3D printing of polymers and ceramics. Inkjet printing is a digital technology, enabling designs and structures to be fabricated directly from files stored on a computer without the need to produce intermediate moulds, tools or screens. Thus a great attraction of using inkjet printing in these newer manufacturing applications is its potential to dramatically reduce lead times from concept to manufacture. This proposal is to provide a central facility to enable research in all of these applications for inkjet printing and in particular to enable us to translate this research from the laboratory to applications in industry and medicine that will be of direct benefit to the UK.

The suite of inkjet printers will allow a number of projects to be carried out including:
Printing functional materials and structures on textiles to allow smart clothing that could monitor the health of an individual.
Printing radio frequency identification devices (RFID) "invisible bar codes" on products to improve security and allow automatic checkout in stores.
Improve our fundamental understanding of the science of how inkjet drops are formed and how they interact with surfaces after printing.
Develop new inks that allow the printing of new materials e.g. graphene.
Enable the 3D printing of structures that can be implanted into the body to enable the healing and regeneration of tissues.

The project is closely aligned to EPSRC and TSB strategy and is consistent with the aims stated in the EPSRC and TSB Partnership in High Value Manufacturing.

The project will provide inkjet printing equipment for the proposed National Centre for Digital Fabrication, these will will be made available to the UK academic research base as a resource for the translation of inkjet research to a commercial manufacturing platform. This will benefit both the UK academic and industrial base by providing an improved route to market and thus enabling an improved pathway to impact for researchers other than the CIs and their immediate collaborators. The facility will be of immediate benefit to our collaborators in the Centre for Innovative Manufacture in Large Area Electronics (EP/K03099X/1) and will assist in providing a facility with a larger printed footprint allowing work at a higher TRL for translational work..

The UK has a strong industrial cluster in inkjet printing technology as well as a large number of academic users in the printed electronic and 3D printing fields. The proposed equipment will allow a stronger interaction between the UK industry and academic sectors in this important area of advanced manufacturing.

An important piece of equipment is the Bioprinter. This will enable state of the art work in the area of biofabrication with applications in rergenerative medicine and tissue engineering. This will have longer term societal impact through developing new methods of treating disease and organ repair.