“ The eye and an ink jet snout have a common problem : they must not be allowed to dry while , simultaneously , they must open,”explains Jae Wan Kwon , comrade professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Missouri . Kwon , with the aid of MU engineering doctoral student Riberet Almieda , solved the problem of the clogging inkjet printer by imitating the human centre ’s own resolution to dry exposure , a scientific approach known as biomimicry .
Inspired by the thin film of vegetable oil that the eyelid spreads over the level of tears to keep them from evaporate , Kwon ’s clog - preventing schnoz natural covering uses a a droplet of silicone crude to embrace the opening night of the nozzle when not in usage . This droplet is move in and out of seat by an electric field , as petite eyelid - mimicking shutters at the small scale of the printer nozzle would be mystify in place by surface tenseness , unable to move as desired .
If not in constant use , the printer nozzle typically clogs over with a impertinence of dry out ink — reckon of a clotted toothpaste tube or a blocked nursing bottle of lotion ; it ’s the same predicament . To reveal the blockage , the printing machine photograph a outburst of fresh ink through the crust , pass the way . This is a lot of waste , expensive ink . Not to mention an environmental strain , what with all the extra pickup these printing machine use up .
And as more and more many uses are being chance on for 3D printing technology , a little lose ink ceases to be the care , Kwon explain to MU News :
“ Adapting the clog - free schnozzle to these machine could save business and researchers thousands of dollar in squander materials . For example , biological tissue printer , which may someday be able of fabricating replacement organs , squeeze out out living prison cell to form biologic structures . Those cells are so expensive that researchers often find it cheaper to replace the nozzle rather than waste the cells . Clog - free nozzles would eliminate the dear replacements . ”
A paper documenting the find was published in theJournal of Microelectromechanical Systems.[U of MissouriviaBiomimicry NewsviaInhabitat ]
Image via IgorKovalchuk / Shutterstock
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