Study on Influence of Adhesion Properties in Screen Printing Electronic Ink Transfer

Printing electronic components by screen printing with the excellent printing quality, high efficiency, and environmental protection has broad application prospects in additive manufacturing. However, because conductive-ink blocks the screen, printing efficiency and quality decreased in the printing process. Thus, it is pivotal to explore adhesion factors from the interaction of conductive ink and screen. Herein, according to the transfer process of screen printing ink, solid-liquid wetting theory, and adhesion mechanism, we establish a liquid bridge adhesion model between two plates and obtain the functional relationship between the adhesion force and its influencing factors. Fluent software verifies the adhesion force model's conclusion to get the influence trend of the adhesion force on the ink residue. At last, by establishing a liquid bridge tensile fracture test, we gain experimental results consistent with the theoretical model and numerical simulation results. It is demonstrated that solid-liquid contact angle, tensile distance, and liquid volume are the main factors affecting the change of solid-liquid adhesion. The increase of tensile distance and contact angle will affect the adhesion force. The smaller the maximum solid-liquid adhesion during the initial stretching of the liquid bridge, the less the residual amount remained on the solid surface. By means of screen modification, the adhesion between conductive ink and screen can be reduced; meanwhile, the efficiency and quality of printed products can be improved. What's more, it also provides a valuable reference for the modification of screen printing electronics.