PhD Research Opportunities

The Cambridge Inkjet Research Centre was established in 2005 to study fundamental aspects of industrial inkjet technology. The current major projects are supported by UK government sources (EPSRC and DTI) and 13 industrial companies, ranging from manufacturers of inkjet equipment (continuous inkjet and drop-on-demand) to ink manufacturers, system integrators and end-users.

Industrial inkjet is a rapidly growing area, as applications expand from conventional graphics, where rapid and flexible printing at point of use is the driver, to the use of the technology for manufacturing both 2-D and 3-D objects.

There is an increasing need to understand the conditions under which complex, non-Newtonian liquids can be printed. The Centre has developed state-of-the-art techniques for imaging very small jets and drops (typically 1 - 50 um in size, with sub-microsecond resolution) and extracting accurate quantitative information from these images. These techniques are then used to study the formation, evolution and impact of jets, and their subsequent behaviour on solid surfaces. There are strong links with colleagues working on the modelling of non-linear fluid flow, with the particular conditions of free surfaces and moving contact lines applicable to these problems.

We welcome interest from potential research students who would like to join the Centre to carry out research for the PhD degree, and will be glad to discuss possible project areas. These might include (but not exclusively): the experimental investigation of large-scale models of drop-on-demand inkjet nozzles, to investigate such aspects as nozzle geometry, pressure-time histories in the ink chamber and nozzle material effects (such as wettability by ink); studies of droplet impact, especially on to porous substrates; studies of the jetting and impact behaviour of fluids with high solids contents; biological applications of inkjet printing. To discuss the possibilities, in the first instance please contact Professor Ian Hutchings (imh2@cam.ac.uk, telephone +44 (0)1223 765217).

The Inkjet research Centre is part of the Institute for Manufacturing, which is within the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge. Formal application for admission as a research student to the University is through the system described in the Graduate Studies Prospectus and general information about graduate study in the Department of Engineering is available here.