Northeastern’s Xiaoyu Tang studies particle-filled droplets to improve 3D printing and inkjet technology with NSF support.

Although inkjet printers have existed since the late 1980s, they have advanced significantly since their debut almost three decades ago. They are an engineering marvel on the one hand, producing everything from colorful invites to written reports by carefully depositing millions of multicolored ink droplets onto a blank sheet of paper.

However, there is still a lot of potential for interruption, particularly for more complicated printing tasks that involve massive 3D structures and a variety of materials. At Northeastern University's Multiphase Transport Research Lab, mechanical and industrial engineering professor Xiaoyu Tang is fostering innovation in the sector.

Tang serves as the main investigator for a group of researchers who study materials that function at the interface between fluid and solid states; these materials are directly related to the technology in your printer. With the help of a recently awarded NSF Career Award, Tang and her colleagues will soon begin developing a new framework that will better comprehend the motion of fluids at work when drops of particle-filled liquid are hurled into bodies of liquid.

According to Tang, this work may help engineers in creating printing technology and ink processes that are more resilient and efficient. High-speed cameras that can take 10,000 pictures in a second are among the rather sophisticated pieces of equipment that will be used in the actual research. Tang says it's essential to have that quickness. According to her, the impact process [of the droplet striking the water] will take less than 100 milliseconds.