A strobe-based inspection system for drops-in-flight

Imaging and measurement of drops-in-flight often relies on the measurement system's ability to drive the print head directly in order to synchronize the strobe for repeatable image capture. In addition, many systems do not have the necessary combination of strobe control and image analysis for full drop-in-flight evaluation. This paper includes a discussion of an integrated machine-vision based system for visualization and measurement of drops-in-flight that can be used with any frequency-based jetting system. The strobe is linked to the firing frequency of the print head, so while it is synchronized, it is independent of the specific print head being inspected. The imaging system resolves droplets down to 2 picoliters in volume at the highest zoom level. And an open architecture software package allows for image collection and archiving as well as powerful and flexible image analysis. This paper will give an overview of the details of this system as well as show some of the system capabilities through several examples of drop-in-flight analysis.