Design and application of nanoparticle coating system with decoupled spray generation and deposition control

Coatings are widely used in various biomedical applications to change the interaction of the surfaces with bioactive materials. The key factors that determine the quality of a spray-coated layer are the size (order of a few microns in diameter) and dimensional uniformity of droplets in the spray and the droplet impact velocity. For many applications, coating quality is strongly dependent on the method and equipment used during the application process. This paper presents the development of a decoupled system for spray coating and micro-printing, which includes an ultrasonic spray generation device and a nozzle for the spray deposition independently operated. Design and development of the system as well as testing for different applications are presented in this paper. The system design can be potentially used for large area coating, such as windows and solar panels, as well as micro-printing of electronic circuits and numerous other applications.