FREMONT, CA: Optomec, a supplier of additive manufacturing systems, announces its production grade range of Aerosol Jet 3D Printers, with wide range of ink options ranging from inorganic semiconductors to other functional materials.

Additive manufacturing or 3D printing is an industrial production technique in which digital design data is used to build up a component in layers by depositing material.

The Optomec Aerosol Jet System enables rapid design turn-around, reducing manufacturing steps, and wider choice of target substrate and materials. The Aerosol Jet technology is a high volume 3D printing solution for the production of conformal electronic components and circuitry. The process is non-contact, occurs at room temperature, and capable of patterning a wide variety of electronic and polymeric materials at the micrometer size scale.

The process involves a liquid ink which is aerosolized and the droplets are aerodynamically focused to a micron-scale point on the target substrate.  The ink options include a wide range of commercially available nanoparticle conductors, polymeric and inorganic semiconductors, ceramics, graphene, and other functional materials.

 The Aerosol Jet Systems can be used for production-scale printing of Bluetooth, Broadband and NFC Antennas with strain and creep sensors,. It can also be used in the production of components such as smart connected devices used in Internet of Things (IoT). The Aerosol Jet can precisely deposit electronic and other materials in dimensions ranging from 10 micrometers (microns) up to centimeter scale.

The technology also features: Sizes up from 10 microns up to centimeter scale and thin Layer Deposits from 100 nm. It is scalable to support high volume production needs. Material viscosities from 1- 1,000 cP, Nanomaterial Deposition Capability, Non-planar Capability and Low-Temperature Processing are some of its other features.