Liquid Transfer in Gavure Printing Processes

DIEGO MARTIN CAMPANA; MARCIO S. CARVALHO

Minneapolis

Workshop; 2012 IPrime Annual Meeting; 2012

University of Minnesota

Industrial printing processes, such as gravure and flexography, have gained great attention in last years because the potential applicability to the fabrication of polymeric solar cells and other flexible electronic devices, which are basically printed on a substrate. Dodds et al. (2009) have used a 2D-axisymmetric numerical model to study the liquid transfer from a cavity full of liquid to a flat moving plate. They have shown that the fraction of liquid effectively transferred is primarily controlled by the cell shape and surface properties. This work is an extension of the aforementioned research, mainly focused in exploring the effect of the cavity shape and size on the transfer process. We have used a numerical technique slightly different to that employed by Doods et al., as an intent to build a more general framework for future developments. The new technique allows us to explore more complex geometries and future extension for 3D flows. The predictions obtained with different cavity geometries show the effect of cavity shape and size on the amount of liquid transfer to the substrate and confirm Dodds? suggestion that the process is mainly controlled by the contact line pinning in the cavity corner. In addition, some preliminary results using a 3D code are presented to show the extension of the technique employed to more complex real cavity shapes.