Energetic inks for screen printing

摘要

This research explores the use of printable energetic inks to fabricate shock tube ignitable detonator delaylines. The aim is to create an ink which is non-toxic, gasless, shock tube ignitable, and possesses a constant burn-rate which can be screen-printed. A screen printable ink consists of a "pigment" (silicon and bismuth trioxide in this research), a resin (nitrocellulose), a solvent and additives which prevent agglomeration, change its viscosity or quicken the drying process. The resin and the solvent form the ink-base to which other ink components can be added. In this research energetic powders are the main constituents, forming approximately 80 wt-% of the ink. Silicon is used as a fuel with bismuth trioxide as an oxidiser. PETN has been added to give further sensitivity to the compound. The current ink-base comprises a nitrocellulose-based resin and white spirit as a solvent. A Phantom Photo-Sonics camera has been used to record the combustion of the delayline. The measured burn-rate for the above ink is 144 ±3 ms/mm for a nominal ink thickness of 100 μm.