Research projects

Smart Material by Inkjet
The present project is a first step toward the manufacturing of continuously varying gradient material with inkjet technology. The main objective is to build up basic understanding on multimaterial droplet interaction for creating tailored made surfaces. Through the vehicle of inks with different softness grades which are doped with mechanochromic additive, we have developed a multi-material inkjet platform, which allows to create gradient materials with new performance. The additive will help to characterize this new kind of materials on one hand and on the other hand it’s the start of creating new passive pressure and temperature sensors.

3D printing of food to enhance nutrition of in-patients at a children’s hospital – a study to explore possibilites
Malnutrition is a major issue in hospitalized patients and has negative consequences on the clinical outcome. During hospital stay the medical circumstances and a lack of attractiveness of food can add to a reduced intake. Particularly in child in-patients a poor eating behavior is of concern.

Fully Printed Electrical Motor
In the recent years with the advent of advanced manufacturing (AM) techniques and novel materials, there is a strong interest to rethink the possibilities on how Electrical machines and electrical motors (EM) are manufactured, and which steps can improve their performance from a design and durability point of view.

Multifunctional Structures
The main objective of the project is to develop and evaluate digital additive manufacturing solutions for multifunctional structures.

3D Inkjet Printing of Zirconia
Additive manufacturing of multi-colored 3D ceramic dental restorations by inkjet printing.

Lab on a Chip for Gram staining
Conception et réalisation d'une nouvelle méthode de coloration de Gram en collaboration avec la société Swissmeca

3D-NVU
In the interdisciplinary project 3D-NVU industrial inkjet printing is used in the context of printing in Life Science (bioprinting).

Stentprint
Design and manufacturing of a new generation of bioresorbable stents by 3D printing.

Printing of chocolate micro-structure and edible decoration
Research on the formulation of a chocolate fluid to print micro-structure as well as decoration with edible inks which can be enhanced with flavour to manufacture a new innovative tasty product.

Study of large-scale inkjet printing on composite panels for the marine environment
Freight transport by sea represents the main channel to export goods across the world. Every year, millions of containers are loaded onto cargo ships and sent beyond the oceans. Most of the products that became indispensable like electronics or clothes use ships to reach us. Unfortunately, it comes with consequences. Marine vessels produce carbon dioxide emissions and significantly contribute to global climate change.

Ebeam in Digital Printing
Ebeam technology is used in digital printing to polymerize inks and varnishes. Compared to standard UV light curing, this principle has the key advantage of being more environmentally friendly because it eliminates the need for initiators, the most toxic elements present in inks.

Combining laser engraving and UV-Inkjet printing for personalization of security documents
Decentralised desktop solutions have remained a rare commodity in a landscape dominated by centralised colour inkjet printing for security documents. Enter IXLA, a renowned world player in desktop laser personalisation of security documents, which embarked on a strategic partnership with the iPrint Institute. Together, they have meticulously engineered a ground-breaking solution – the seamless integration of a compact inkjet printing system into IXLA's laser engraving machines. Designed to emphasise user-friendliness, this innovative system significantly advances the security document personalisation domain. Positioned as the pioneer of its kind, it is primed to meet the ever-evolving market demands. As the industry transitions toward larger colour images, embraces novel security features, and undergoes digital transformation, this solution is poised to lead the way into the future of security document personalisation.

Remise
Inkjet printing with droplets a hundred time smaller than a hair! The iPrint institute at the School of Engineering and Architecture of Fribourg (HEIA-FR) is collaborating with Scrona, a Zurich-based startup, to develop a miniaturized supply system for cutting-edge print heads that are capable of printing functional inks using droplets a hundred times smaller than a human hair.

Digital Plasma
Non-thermal micro plasmas at atmospheric pressure have gained significant importance in a wide area of technological applications over the past 20 years. For better surface adhesion and to achieve high quality of the final printed and coated multi-material shapes and devices, a high-resolution multi-nozzle plasma jet array is needed, which can digitally apply a micro plasma surface treatment. The main objective of the project is the development of a plasma array in which each single plasma cell can be ignited individually at atmospheric pressure following an arbitrary request of the final user.

Direct to shape inkjet printing with robots
To enable printing onto large & heavy objects it is necessary to combine `robot-moved printhead & static object'. While this approach opens many new application areas the accelerated motion of the printhead results in key tech challenges to achieve high printing speed, precision, and reliability.

Inkjet straightness sensing
Development of a system to measure the internal acoustic behaviour on nozzle level of a printhead to determine whether drop ejection is working properly. Alert the operators if not. Construction of prototype and test run on industrial printer showed very good detection rate of abnormal jetting behaviour. Industrialisation on our partners side is underway and their next product generation will contain this system.

Complex Fluid Print

DCHVA Innosuisse
Transfer of HV capacitor serial production into a more robust, efficient and automatized process.

Feasibility study of a new dielectric droplet-based assembly process of passive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
In this project, we investigate a new assembly process that consists in producing passive RFID tags only with printing steps

Inkjet-printing of solar cells on flexible substrates
Toyota Motor Europe is developing Ink‐Jet printing of perovskite solar cells tech in collaboration with iPrint and EPFL.