Effect of Enhanced Squeezing Needle Structure on the Jetting Performance of a Piezostack-Driven Dispenser

Advanced dispensing technology is urgently needed to improve the jetting performance of fluid to meet the requirements of electronic product integration and miniaturization. In this work, an on–off valve piezostack-driven dispenser was used as a study object to investigate the effect of needle structure on jetting performance. Based on fluid dynamics, we investigated nozzle cavity pressure and jet velocity during the dispensing process using theoretical simulation for needles with and without a side cap. The results showed that the needle with a side cap had larger jet velocity and was capable of generating 8.27 MPa of pressure in the nozzle cavity, which was 2.39 times larger than the needle without a side cap. Further research on the influence of the nozzle and needle structural parameters showed that a nozzle conic angle of 85°–105°, needle conic angle of 10°–35°, and side clearance of 0.1–0.3 mm produced a dispenser with a large jet velocity and stable performance, capable of dispensing microscale droplets. Finally, a smaller droplet diameter of 0.42 mm was achieved in experiments using a glycerol/ethanol mixture, with a variation range of ± 4.61%.