Printing parameters

Inking Depth Inking Time Print Depth Z acceleration 

Inking Time — Pins may have different capillary fill and wetting rates depending upon surface characteristics and geometries. For example, inking times on quills are in the range of a few seconds, while it may not be necessary to keep solid pins in contact with a source plate for more than a second to allow uptake. 

Preprints — Quill pins for fhe reasons described above require a number of preprints. This is largely an empirical exercise. For that reason, the best approach is to conduct a print test and measure the number of printings necessary to achieve consistent spot size. For example, 10 spottings may be required before consisfenf spof size is reached. Therefore, the number of preprints required to assure high quality array production would be about 15. 

Stamping Time — This is the amount of time fhaf fhe pin resides on the substrate surface. The more time spent on the surface, the greater ink volume deposited on the substrate. The greater volume has a tendency to cause spreading of the fluid, thereby increasing spot diameter. However, other factors such as the contact angle of the substrate and the capillary hydrostatic head also influence the size and spread of droplets. 

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Pudas M, Hagberg J, Leppavuori S. (2004) Printing parameters and ink components affecting ultra-fine-gravure-offset printing for electronics applications. / Eur Ceram Soc 24 2943-2950. 

High quality color reproduction is now obtainable by ink jet printing and will be illustrated. Once the printing parameters are selected, the quality achieved in the color reproduction depends strongly on the materials parameters of the system. Ink-paper interactions, ink formulation, and paper surface preparation all contribute to the quality of the resulting print. Archivality of the print is controlled by the lightfastness of the dye, the pH of the ink, and of the waterfastness achieved. 

Use the Print Setup command from the Print menu to define the printer and the print parameters like paper size and print quality (see Fig. 6.7). Clicking on the Properties button opens another dialog box. The settings shown will depend on the model of your printer. 

Printing experiments using lab scale printers with variable printing parameters ... 

An exhaustive review of research studies and activities in the inkjet printing of conductive materials has been presented (5). The inkjet printing process and the various types of conductive inks have been detailed. The various factors that affect the quality of printed matter have been described. These include the printing parameters, materials and the pretreatment of the substrate to be printed. 

Different doses of the drugs in a single dosage unit could be produced by varying some printing parameters, such as the distance between jetted droplets and the physical dimensions of the printed dosage forms. 

Today, in the electronics industry, the primary mesh material is stainless steel, which adds an additional degree of control and precision over nylon in addition to added resistance to wear and stretching [9]. The crude hand methods of printing have evolved to sophisticated, microprocessor-controlled machines that are self-aligning, have the ability to measure the thickness of the film and also to adjust the printing parameters to compensate for variations in the properties of the thick-film paste [10-12]. 

If the setup procedures are followed, problems should be at a minimum. However, given the number of variables, it is inevitable that the printing parameters will drift over a period of time. The principles in this sechon will help to keep the printed patterns within specifications. 

Use soft, lint-free wipes for cleaning the screen during printing. Use locking fixtures to keep printing parameters at set point. Maintain uniform printing speed and print rate. 

Bao, Z., Conducting pol5nners fine printing. Nature Materials, Vol. 3, March 2004. Ahmad, S., Jiang, T., and Moden, W, A simple method for optimizing screen print parameters. Proceedings of1997 International Symposium on Microelectronics, SPIE Vol. 3235, 1997, pp. 542-545. 

Printed conductors have a cross section that depends on various process parameters (paste properties and printing parameters). Because of internal field distribution, flat conductors exhibit a current concentration on the edges. This effect is included by the form factor Q [55,56] ... 

Table 2. Printing parameters for printing process of Heraeus HL2000 LTCC tape.

The printing process was also done in a temperature controlled room at 25 °C and using a standard 325 mesh and angle of 22.5°. The printing parameter used for the process were fixed and controlled to eliminate the variation from the printer (London, 2008). Printing... 

Pudas, M., Hagberg, J. Leppavuori, S. (2004). Printing Parameters and Ink Components Affecting Ultra-Fine-Line Gravure-Offset Printing for Electronics Applications. J. Europ. Ceram. Soc., Vol. 24, p>p. 2943-2950. 

The focused aerosol particles are 1 to 5 pm in size and permit microfine conductor structures down to widths of 10 pm and 20 pm spacing. Ink, substrate, and print parameters all have to be closely matched in order to achieve structures as fine as this. On account of the parallel alignment and high exit speed of the aerosol, the contour sharpness of the conductor track geometry remains virtually constant even when the nozzle-to-substrate gap is as wide as 3 mm. Consequently, small irregularities in the substrate surface are easy to print without modification of the print head s z-axis alignment. 

However, for applied ink-jet printing techniques it is essential to understand how fluid properties and printing parameters... 

A further investigation into the trend of decreased dried droplet diameters was performed using another solvent that has a lower vapor pressure than toluene. In order to keep the experiments comparahle, a solvent with similar Reynolds and Weber numbers was chosen. Butyl acetate was identified as an appropriate candidate. In order to obtain comparable print results, the print parameters were set in such a way that the droplet velocity and in-flight diameter (55 pm) were equal to the previous experiment for 1 wt.% polystyrene. 

Figure 31 (a) Polystyrene films ink-jet-printed using a solution containing 2 wt.% polystyrene and 0.05 wt.% Disperse Red 1 to improve the contrast of the films. Each film was printed from an ethyl acetate/methyl benzoate (90 10) solvent mixture. Print parameters and solvent mixture composition vary from row to row. (b) Overlay of the absorbance spectra of eight adjacent films from row B in (a). Reprinted with permission fromTekin, E. de Gans, B.-J. Schubert, U. S. J. Mater. Chem. 2004, 14, 2627. Copyright 2010 the Royal Society of Chemistry. 

The process parameters key to the stencil printing process include the squeegee type and hardness, print speed, print pressure, and print gap. An optimal stencil printer setup provides a clean sweep on the stencil surface and a repeatable solder paste deposition process. Shore A scale polyurethane squeegee hardness level between 85 to 95 is appropriate to achieve repeatable solder deposits for lead-free solder pastes. Print parameters such as the print speed, print pressure, and the print gap are adjusted to accommodate the variety of solder paste rheologies available. There are no specific equipment modifications necessary to stencil printer lead-free solder pastes. 

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