Inkjet Technology for Digital Fabrication

Preface

From its initial use for product marking and date coding in the 1980s, and its development and widespread adoption for the desktop printing of text and images in the following two decades, inkjet technology is now having an increasing impact on commercial printing for many applications including labels, print-on-demand books and even newspapers. With great intrinsic flexibility and very short set-up times, inkjet printing is also challenging conventional methods for more specialised uses such as ceramic tile decoration and textile printing.

Exactly the same processes by which individual drops of liquid are produced and directed onto a substrate under digital control can be used to deposit materials other than the coloured ‘inks’ used for text and graphics. Metals, ceramics and polymers, with a wide range of functionality, can all be printed by inkjet methods, and exciting possibilities are also raised by the ability to print biological materials, including living cells. We are at the dawn of a digital age for printing, and it is the aim of this book to show how the changes which are happening in that world will lead to equally revolutionary changes in the ways in which we can manufacture products. Digital fabrication offers the possibilities of tailoring materials at a microscopic level, and positioning them exactly where they are required, with exactly the right properties. It has the potential to generate structures and functions which cannot be attained by other methods, ...