Electrodeless Drop-On-Demand Printing of Personalized Unit Doses

Drop-on-demand (DOD) systems (i.e., drops are formed only as required) appear to be the most promising platform technology for small-scale manufacturing of personalized treatments. As a digital technology, this method is able to deposit precisely controlled amounts of material at exact locations without waste, rendering it especially attractive for use with expensive pharmaceutical products. Although promising, the application of conventional DoD printing methods to pharmaceutical products poses a number of challenges due to different functional requirements. The authors have recently developed a method of electrodeless DOD printing appropriate for printing of pharmaceutical compositions. Now, the authors present results of experimental and theoretical studies of the effects of the fluid viscosity and electric conductance on the drop deposition, spreading, and imbibition over a porous polymer film. A diagram of operating modes of the drop deposition as a function of the pulse voltage and length and fluid viscosity is constructed. This work was supported by NSF Engineering Research Center on Structured Organic Particulate Systems.