Numerical Study on E-jet printing Cone Forming of Insulating Nozzle Structure

E-jet printing is a new type of micro-nano printing technology that has developed rapidly in recent years. It has advantages of high precision, wide printing materials, and simple structure. Nozzle based on structure can be divided into conductive nozzles and insulated nozzles. When conductive nozzle is applied with a high potential, it will generate electric corrosion around nozzle, destroying its nozzle structure. And corrosion will not happen to insulated nozzle, but insulating nozzle have a complex structure, which is cumbersome to manufacture with high experimental costs. In this paper, the numerical simulation of the E-jet forming state of insulating nozzle structure is carried out, and the jet-forming law of the E-jet printing under insulating nozzle structure is investigated. A two-dimensional axisymmetric Maxwell stress tensor is used to represent the electric field force and added to the N-S equation as a volume force. The phase field method is used to track the liquid-gas interface and calculate the surface tension. The finite element method is used to solve the problem. The results show that the jet forming law of insulating nozzles has the same trend of voltage and inlet pressure as that of conductive nozzle, but the jet forming time are smaller than that of conductive nozzle. Therefore, the use of insulating nozzle can improve the speed and stability of jet forming.