Progress on micro-jetting forming

With the precise controlling capability of the shapes, velocity and drop locations of micro-droplets, micro-jetting forming technology is an attractive method for patterning and fabricating objects directly from design or image files without the need for masks, patterns, or dies, and it is a popular research subject in Advanced Manufacturing Technology. Principles, processing, and characteristics of different micro-jetting methods, especially drop-on-demand method, were reviewed. Interactions between micro-droplets and substrate were discussed, and the process can be divided into: impacting, wetting, spreading, and penetration. The influence of the micro droplets and the substrate’s properties for spreading and penetration were overviewed according to the experiments and simulation researches from the literatures. The applications and potential trends of micro-jetting forming such as Rapid Prototyping, MEMS, Bio-manufacturing, etc. were introduced.