Have you tried changing wave functions? Changing the voltage you sell to the piezo elements of the cartridge can also help. Is the rheology of the ink within the cartridge recommendations? For printing silver nanoparticles, we usually use inks with a viscosity of about 3 cP and a surface tension of 25-28 mN / m. Did you see ink stains on the cleaning pad when you clean the cartridge?

Unfortunately, I have not worked with the PiXDRO LP50 and do not know how this printer works. In our laboratory we use DMP-2831.

I agree that you will most likely need to adjust the waveform. If it is a commercial silver nanoparticle ink, you could ask the provider for an optimized waveform (on the DMC cartridges, a little tweaking could help anyway in most cases).

If you do not see any drop formation in the dropview of the LP50 at all, you could try to raise the (maximum) voltage of your waveform. I would also suggest to turn on the option to cycle the dropview delay to make sure you are not stuck at a "bad" LED delay.

Dear Aya, typical questions to determine the cause of the non-jetting nozzles: Does the ink come out when purging? Did this cartridge show jetting nozzles with a solvent (e.g. TGME)? Do you see droplets with the dropview camera? Is the LP50 set to Print and not only SImulate? As Fabian Langer mentioned: did you try adjusting the waveform and/or printhead temperature and/or LED delay?

Kind regards, Joost

Joost Hermans

Does the ink come out when purging? Yes

Did this cartridge show jetting nozzles with a solvent (e.g. TGME)? Only bubbles are shown when purging, it doesn’t jet (we used DI water as solvent)

Do you see droplets with the dropview camera? No

Is the LP50 set to Print and not only SImulate? It has both print only and simulate and print

Did you try adjusting the waveform and/or printhead temperature and/or LED delay? Yes, we tried several waveforms and frequencies. None of this worked with us.

Dear Aya, is DI water also the main solvent of the Ag nanoparticle ink? For piezo-electric inkjet printing with the DMC cartridge a different type of solvent might be more suitable. Commercial available Ag nanoparticle inks often have TGME, DGME as main solvent.

Kind regards,

Joost

Dear Aya,

Did you check if the connectors are firmly connected?

Maybe a bit obvious, but it does happen more often.

Kind regards,

Joost

Joost Hermans

Our Ag ink is water based

It is not easy to print water based inks. Did you add surfactants to reduce the surface tension of the ink? I would recommend to use another solvent or at least ad a solvent which can be mixed with water. E.g. ethylene glycol or glycerol to increase viscosity and reduce surface tension.

Is it a commercial ink and suitable for inket printing? Then you should get printing parameters or at least advice from the producer.