Continuous inkjet (CIJ) technology has the advantage of much higher speed, better reliability, and wider ink and substrate latitude compared to drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet technology. KODAK Stream Inkjet Technology is a breakthrough CIJ technology that provides a full digital printing solution offering high speed, superb image quality, and low cost. The core of Stream technology is a silicon chip made by the state-of-the-art micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication process. This article reports the study of a CIJ device that has one pair of interactive nozzles per channel. Ink drops with large and small volumes are generated by thermal stimulation of high-speed liquid jet emitted from each nozzle. One pair of resistive heaters located around each nozzle is used to control the direction of the ink stream from each nozzle. Under proper conditions, the large drops from each of the pair of nozzles touch each other and merge laterally, while the small drops from each pair of nozzles remain separate. The lateral merging CIJ technology has the advantage of higher speed, better image quality, and less complicated printing system compared to single-nozzle-per-channel CIJ technology. Results from simulations and experimental studies are reported.
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