Ink jet printing is a fabrication technique that shows potential for use in fields such as printed electronics, biomaterials and MEMS. The attainable feature size and spacing of a component manufactured in this fashion is determined by the generated droplet size, how the droplets interact with the substrate and how adjacent droplets interact with each other. An individual droplet of material-laden ink will form a deposit with a diameter dependent upon the generated droplet size and the contact angle formed between the droplet and the substrate. This diameter can be accurately predicted using a spherical cap assumption and macroscopic contact angle data. As droplets are moved closer together on a substrate, they appear to interact with each other at distances greater than the predicted equilibrium diameter of a droplet. The amount of interaction between droplets increases with decreasing equilibrium contact angle. This interaction could either be due to changes in the local vapour pressure around previously deposited droplets or impact-driven spreading of the droplet beyond the equilibrium state.
Jonathan Stringer, Brian Derby, "The Impact and Spreading of Ink Jet Printed Droplets" in Proc. IS&T Digital Fabrication Conf., 2006, pp 128 - 130, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2006.22.2.art00041_3