Abstract
Fundamental behavior of boiling bubbles generated on a small film heater used for thermal ink jet (TIJ) printers is investigated experimentally under a single pulse heating in a pool of water. Pulse power and pulse width are varied in wide ranges that include the printing conditions. From a comparison with the results obtained using a platinum film heater enabling surface temperature measurement, the nucleation on the TIJ heater is believed to be dominated by spontaneous nucleation at around the heating rate for printing. The subsequent growth and collapse of the coalesced bubble is markedly affected by pulse power and pulse width.
