Manufacture of 3-dimensional objects by reactive inkjet printing

Fully dense, transparent, pore-free plastic objects have been produced by reactive inkjet printing using a two component system of powder and resin fluid with photoinitiated cross-linking. In order to achieve full density the printed fluid must wet and penetrate the powder body. It is shown that the spatial resolution of the process is controlled by the spreading of the printed fluid on the powder prior to infiltration and that simple models developed to predict the dimensions of inkjet printed lines on solid substrates can be used to predict the behaviour in this system. © 2008 The Royal Society of Chemistry.