Filament Extension Atomizer

Abstract

PARC has developed the Filament Extension Atomizer (FEA) to address problems arising from difficult-to-spray materials. Conventional spray methods work well for an ideal set of fluids, but often fail to maintain their quality as a spray becomes more difficult. FEA allows spraying of a wider range of fluids, including those that are strain hardening due to presence of macromolecular components or simply high viscosity. The technology is capable of spraying a wide range of strain-hardening, non-Newtonian and high-viscosity fluids with tight particle size distributions, tunable droplet sizes, and at a large range of scales depending on the application. At the core of FEA, a fluid enters the nip, or contact area, between two high-speed counter-rotating rollers. As the fluid exits the nip, multiple filaments are formed. These filaments are stretched and thinned as they move downstream until eventually they break into droplets. These droplets are harvested and can be shaped and directed to accommodate a wide range of applications. FEA is able to spray a wide range of materials and can be customized for different particle sizes, deposition parameters, and scale for both industrial and consumer applications. We will present our work on spraying of Newtonian solutions, non-Newtonian dilute solutions of polymers, polymer melts, and high viscosity fluids to demonstrate the range and depth of this technology.