Inkjet printing of polyurethane colloidal suspensions

An aqueous 40 wt% dispersion of polyurethane has been successfully printed at room temperature using a piezoelectric inkjet printer. Simple layered structures, as well as dots, were made and subsequently analyzed using white-light interferometry. A single layer was found to have a structure height of 10 µm; a value that suggests that this polyurethane dispersion may be suitable for use in rapid prototyping, since tall structures can be rapidly produced using only a few printing passes. Finally, by the simple addition of a water-soluble dye, colour gradients were produced using this printing technique.