Using ultrasonic energy to improve the ink drying process: A feasibility study

It has recently been proposed to use ultrasonic energy to dry ink jet printed materials. This work presents the results of a feasibility study of such technology. Both calculations and experiments show that direct heat transfer may be of significant influence only for MHz range ultrasonic frequencies. Thus, any attempt to use ultrasonic energy to speed drying on non-absorbing substrates should involve moving to MHz frequencies, and this move may prove useful.