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IJAT Vol.14 No.2 pp. 159-166
doi: 10.20965/ijat.2020.p0159
(2020)

Paper:

Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Stainless Steel Nozzles by Femtosecond Laser Micro-/Nano-Texturing

Tatsuhiko Aizawa*,†, Tadahiko Inohara**, and Kenji Wasa***

*Surface Engineering Design Laboratory
3-15-10 Minami-rokugo, Ota, Tokyo 144-0045, Japan

Corresponding author

**L.P.S. Works Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

***MicroTeX Labs, LLC, Tokyo, Japan

Received:
July 27, 2019
Accepted:
December 25, 2019
Published:
March 5, 2020
Keywords:
stainless steel nozzle, physical surface modification, femtosecond laser micro-/nano-texturing, superhydrophobicity, dispensing behavior
Abstract

A dispensing nozzle is an essential mechanical element in inkjet, dot, and bioprinting. To improve the printing resolution, the inner diameter of the nozzle outlet must be as small as possible. A droplet dispensed through a hydrophilic stainless steel outlet expands on the whole outlet surface and along the side surface of the nozzle. This issue can be solved by physical surface modifications. In the present paper, a femtosecond laser micro-/nano-texturing method was developed to transform the originally hydrophilic stainless steel surface of a nozzle to a hydrophobic or superhydrophobic one. First, an AISI304 plate was used to demonstrate experimentally that, on its surface, the tailored micro-/nano-patterns were reproduced as micro-/nano-textures, making the surface superhydrophobic. Second, the technique was applied to the physical surface modification of an AISI304 stainless steel nozzle outlet by optimizing the femtosecond laser machining conditions. A high-speed camera was used to take a snapshot of the dispensed droplet from the surface-modified outlet. Finally, a line-printing experiment was performed to characterize the dispensing behavior of the stainless steel nozzles with and without physical surface modification.

Cite this article as:
T. Aizawa, T. Inohara, and K. Wasa, “Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Stainless Steel Nozzles by Femtosecond Laser Micro-/Nano-Texturing,” Int. J. Automation Technol., Vol.14 No.2, pp. 159-166, 2020.
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