To date, there are limited options in the ability to create droplets of smaller radii than that of the nozzle from which they are produced. Existing methods pertain largely to piezoelectric inkjet printing and time scale manipulation rendering them inapplicable to thermal inkjet technologies. In this work, a simple method for drop volume control in inkjet systems is proposed in which stable drop volume can be reduced by an order of magnitude with a constant nozzle radius by adjusting the back pressure in the reservoir that supplies the print head. The back pressure is regulated, droplet sizes, stability, and velocities are recorded. These results are then corroborated by rigorous modeling.
Aaron Fulton, J. William Boley, Nikhil Bajaj, George T.-C. Chiu, "Drop Volume Modulation via Applied Backpressure in Inkjet Systems" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies and Digital Fabrication (NIP30), 2014, pp 20 - 25, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2014.30.1.art00008_1