PIEZOELECTRIC INKJET PRINTING OF FUNCTIONAL INKS ONTO COMPOSITE MOCK ENERGETIC MATERIAL SYSTEMS

Energetic materials (EMs) manufacturing practices have evolved little since the First and Second World Wars. Because of this, a substantial focus has recently been placed on modernizing the processes used in the production of these materials to mitigate the risk of human error and prevent the potentially fatal, and costly, consequences that exist when accidents take place. In this work, a piezoelectrically actuated inkjet printer system was used to deposit functional materials onto the surfaces of mock and live polymer-bonded EMs. The benefit to this is two-fold: (1) the material can safely be deposited remotely, %mention human error? and (2) this high resolution method of printing can open the door to novel applications, allowing for functional elements to be integrated directly with the material. To start, composite formulation and mixing parameters were studied on a variety of mixers to better inform substrate preparation and the role that these parameters may play in a variety of substrate material properties, including local internal composition, density, quasi-static compression, and surface topography. From here, the topography and surface free energy of the surface of these materials was analyzed further to better inform ink formulation and selection. Upon observing the ink behavior at the interface, print parameters were chosen that supported the creation of continuous architectures that could function in a variety of capacities, including as resistance probes, strain gauges, heaters, spark gap igniters, and antennas.