A MULTI-MATERIAL 3D PRINTING SYSTEM AND

MODEL-BASED LAYER-TO-LAYER CONTROL

ALGORITHM FOR INK-JET PRINTING PROCESS
By

Jian Zheng

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate

Faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE

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Major Subject: ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

Examining Committee:
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Sandipan Mishra, Thesis Adviser

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Anak Agung Julius, Thesis Adviser

Arthur C. Sanderson, Member

Wencen Wu, Member

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Troy, New York

April 2014
(For Graduation May 2014)
 UMI Number: 1561982

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c Copyright 2014
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Jian Zheng
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 CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi

ACKNOWLEDGMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

ABSTRACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

1. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Multi-material 3D Printing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Ink-jet Printing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

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1.2.1 Drop-on-demand Ink-jet Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.1.1 Piezoelectric Ink-jet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.1.2 Thermal Ink-jet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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1.2.2 Ultraviolet Curing Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Electro-spinning System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
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2. MULTI-MATERIAL 3D PRINTING SYSTEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1 Manufacturing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3 Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
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2.3.1 G-Code Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2.3.2 Task Control Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4 Experimental Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.4.1 Geometry Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4.2 Effect of Nano-fibers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.5 Motivation of Closed-loop Control over Ink-jet Printing Process . . . 30

3. LITERATURE REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 Droplet Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2 Droplet Coalescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.3 Closed-loop Control Algorithm in Additive Manufacturing . . . . . . 36
3.4 Gaps of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.5 Problem Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

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4. MODEL OF INK-JET PRINTING PROCESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1 Simplified Single-layer Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.2 Layer-to-layer Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

5. CONTROL ALGORITHM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

6. EXPERIMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6.1 Printing Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6.2 Model Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6.3 Experimental Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

7. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

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APPENDICES

A. MATLAB G-CODE EDITING PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

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A.1 MATLAB Editing Program for Large Scale Printing . . . . . . . . . . 61
A.1.0.1 Main Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
A.1.0.2 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
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A.2 MATLAB Editing Program for Small Scale Printing . . . . . . . . . . 71
A.2.0.3 Main Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
A.2.0.4 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
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 LIST OF TABLES

2.1 Measurements and Model (Bow Tie) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

2.2 Measurements and Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

6.1 System Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

6.2 Experimental results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

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 LIST OF FIGURES

1.1 Schematics of Layer-to-layer Deposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.2 Typical Composite Structure. (A)Inkjet Printed Structure(Ink Mate-

rial One), (B)Electro-spun Nano-fibers, (C)Inkjet Printed Structure(Ink
Material Two) (Figure from [1]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.3 Illustration of Proposed Multi-material Composite 3D Printing Sys-

tem. (A)Ink-jet Printing System, (B)Measurement System, (C)Ultra-
violet Curing System, (D)Heating System, (E)Five-axis Linear Stage,
(F)Fiber Cut System, (G)Fiber Stamp System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.4 Typical Ink-jet Printing System. (A)Ultra-violet Curing System, (B)Ink-

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jet Nozzle, (C)Substrate, (D)Three-axis Linear Stage . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.5 Piezoelectric Ink-jet System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.6
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Waveform of Trigger Signal for Ink-jet System. (A)Rise Time, (B)Dwell
Time, (C)Fall Time, (D)Echo Time, (E)Final Rise Time and Voltages . 6

1.7 Example of Piezoelectric Ink-jet Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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1.8 Thermal Ink-jet System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.9 Ultraviolet Curing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

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1.10 Electro-spinning Process (Figure from [2]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.1 General Layer Processing Flow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2.2 Experiment Setup. (A)Ultra-violet Curing System and Heating System,

(B)ink-jet System, (C)Five-axis Linear Stage, (D)Fiber Stamp System,
(E)Measurement System, (F)Fiber Cut System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

2.3 Close View of Curing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.4 Ink-jet and Measurement System. (A)Ink-jet Reservoirs, (B)Nozzle,

(C)Heat Block, (D)2D Laser Height Sensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.5 System Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

2.6 G-Code Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.7 Slic3r Print Path Options. (a)Rectilinear Pattern, (b)Circular Pattern,

(c)Hybrid Rectilinear Pattern with Perimeters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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2.8 Raw G-Code and Augmented G-Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.9 User Input Interface and Zoom-in View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.10 Portion of Monitor Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2.11 Bow Tie Prototype Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.12 Pyramid Prototype Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.13 3D Model Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.14 (a)Top View of Height Profile of Bow Tie Prototype, (b)Aerial View of
Height Profile of Bow Tie Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

2.15 (a)Axial Line Profile and Reference, (b)Axial Line Error . . . . . . . . . 26

2.16 Bow Tie Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

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2.17 (a)Top View of Height Profile of Pyramid Prototype, (b) Aerial View
of Height Profile of Pyramid Prototype . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
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2.18 (a)Profile of Pyramid Prototype with 45 Degree Reference Line, (b)
Edge Error . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
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2.19 SEM Image of Pyramid Prototype with Nanofibers . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2.20 SEM Image of Pyramid Prototype without Nanofibers . . . . . . . . . . 30

3.1 Single Droplet Model (Figure from [3]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

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3.2 Time Evolution of Droplet Profile: Numerical Simulation vs. Experi-

mental Results (Figure from [4]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

3.3 Examples of Droplet Coalescence: a)Individual Drops; b)Scalloped;

c)Uniform; d)Bulging. Droplet Spacing Decreases from Left to Right
(Figure from [5]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

3.4 Schematic Illustration of Droplet Coalescence (Figure from [6]) . . . . . 35

3.5 The Deposition Tool Nozzle and The Droplet Modeled as A Spherical
Cap (Figure from [7]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

3.6 Droplet Deposition Pattern (Figure from [7]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3.7 The Block Diagram Showing The Closed-loop Layer-to-layer Printing

Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

4.1 Coalescence Process of Two Droplets (Figure from [8]) . . . . . . . . . . 41

4.2 Discretized Printing Region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

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4.3 Droplet Location Categorization. Blue-Center Droplet, Magenta-Side
Neighbors, Blue-Corner Neighbors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

4.4 Layer Height Change Model. Height Change Parameters h1 , h2 and h3 . 44

4.5 Height Change at Neighboring Points A and B Depending on the Values

of HA − HB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4.6 10-layer Open-loop Printing Simulation Using the Proposed Model . . . 47

5.1 Illustration of the Proposed Prediction Control Algorithm . . . . . . . . 49

6.1 Four Layer Printing Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

6.2 (a)Top View of Four Separated Droplets: Diameter is Measured at

413µm; (b)Aerial View of Four Separated Droplets: h2 is the Height
Change Factor for the Center Location Due to Droplets Deposited at

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Center Locations Which is Found to Be 4.4µm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

6.3 (a)Top View of Side Neighbor Droplets Effect (b)Aerial View of Side
Neighbor Droplets Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

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(a)Top View of Corner Neighbor Droplets Effect (b)Aerial View of Cor-
ner Neighbor Droplets Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
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6.5 Open-loop Printing Experiment, Showing Severe Edge Shrinking and
Top Surface Unevenness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

6.6 Closed-loop Printed Cube, Showing Satisfactory Edge Profile and Top
Surface Evenness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Professor Sandipan Mishra

for the inspiring comments, remarks and engagement through the learning process
of this master thesis. Furthermore I would like to thank Dr. Lu Lu for his ideals and
guidance in all the time of research. Besides my advisor, I would also like to thank
my committee members, Professor A. Agung Julius, Professor Arthur C. Sanderson
and Professor Wencun Wu for serving as my committee members. I also want to
thank you for letting my defense be an enjoyable moment, and for your helpful
comments and suggestions.

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I thank my fellow labmates in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ISAaC group:
Xuemei Gao, Sina Afshari, William (Bill) Carter, Jacopo Tani, Botao Hu and Yijie
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Guo, for the stimulating discussions, and for all the fun we have had in the last two
years.
Also thanks for my teammates in SHARPi group: Clayson Spackman, Kyle
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Picha, Garrett G. Gross, James F. Nowak and Phil J. Smith, for not only bringing
the great ideas into reality, but also being my great friends.
The Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering has pro-
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vided the support and equipment I have needed to produce and complete my thesis.
The The U.S. Department of Defense Small Business Innovation Research/Small
Business Technology Transfer has funded the phase one development of the system.

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 ABSTRACT

The objective of this thesis is to develop a novel, multi-material 3D printing system

to manufacture laminated nano-composite structures with consistent layer height
and satisfactory top surface evenness. The 3D printing technology presented in this
paper integrates ink-jet printing of ultraviolet curable materials and deposition of
nano-fibers. As the key process of this multi-material 3D printer, the performance of
ink-jet 3D printing largely determines the overall performance of the multi-material
3D printing system. However, in traditional ink-jet 3D printing, the part is built
up by depositing droplets layer upon layer in an open-loop manner. Droplet and

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edge dimensions are typically predicted experimentally and are assumed to remain
constant through the printing process. But there is no guarantee of consistency
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of droplet shape and dimensions or the smoothness of the finished parts due to
uncertainties in the manufacturing process. To address this issue, we propose a
model-based feedback control law for ink-jet 3D printing that uses a height sensor
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for measuring profile height after each layer for determining the appropriate layer
patterns for subsequent layers. Towards this goal, a simple model describing the
relationship between profile height change and droplet deposition in the layer build-
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ing process is first proposed and experimentally identified. Based on this model, a
closed-loop layer-to-layer control algorithm is then developed for the ink-jet printing
process. Specifically, the proposed algorithm uses a model prediction control algo-
rithm to minimize the difference between the predicted height and the desired height
and the predicted surface unevenness after a fixed number of layers. Experimental
and simulation results show that the algorithm is able to achieve more consistent
shapes between layers, reduced edge shrinking of the part, and smoother surface of
the top layer.

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Additive manufacturing is revolutionizing the manufacturing industry [9]. Com-

pared to the traditional ways of manufacturing based on material removal, additive
manufacturing builds up parts layer by layer as shown in Fig.1.1. The part geometry
is sliced into a sequence of layer patterns and each later is built up based on these
patterns. This process greatly reduces material wastes, and enables the manufac-
ture of parts of varying geometries [10]. Most commercial additive manufacturing
systems utilize plastic, metal or powder as the printing material. Thus, the resolu-

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tion of these commercial 3D printing systems is limited by the size of the unit of
deposition (droplet size, fiber diameter, or powder size). In this multi-material 3D
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printing system, the performance of ink-jet system largely determines the capabil-
ity of overall 3D printing system. Ink-jet 3D printing typically generates droplets
with diameters between 50-500 µm and which vary depending on nozzle size, type of
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printing, the printed material, among others [11]. The small size of this building unit
(droplet) reflects the capability of ink-jet 3D printing of achieving high resolution.
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Figure 1.1: Schematics of Layer-to-layer Deposition

Traditionally, the 3D printing process is implemented in an open-loop manner,

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i.e., the number of layers to be constructed and the places where the droplets are to
be deposited on each layer are determined in advance and do not change during the
online printing process based on any measurement of the true profile of the layer.
While this open-loop method is simple to implement, the final part often exhibits
irregularities such as severe edge shrinking, unreliable dimensions and surface un-
evenness. These undesirable phenomena are particularly obvious when the height
of a part is large and the liquid material has a small contact angle [6]. Since the
ink-jet printing is the key process that determines the quality of manufactured part.
Thus, the objective of this thesis is to propose a model to describe three-dimensional
droplets interaction process, and to propose a layer-to-layer closed-loop control algo-
rithm to improve the printing performance of the multi-material 3D printing system.

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In this chapter, general description about the multi-material 3D printing system will
be given. And two major additive manufacturing technologies: ink-jet printing and
electro-spinning will be introduced.
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1.1 Multi-material 3D Printing System
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Figure 1.2: Typical Composite Structure. (A)Inkjet Printed

Structure(Ink Material One), (B)Electro-spun Nano-fibers, (C)Inkjet
Printed Structure(Ink Material Two) (Figure from [1])
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The multi-material 3D printing system presented in this thesis integrates two

major additive manufacturing technologies: ink-jet 3D printing and electro-spinning
processes. Through the utilization of ultraviolet curable materials, we are able to
obtain solid structures from ink-jet printing system. Through the electro-spinning
nano-fiber generation system, fiber mats will be obtained. Fig.1.2 shows the typical
composite structure manufactured from our multi-material 3D printer. It consists of
there materials with two ink materials and nano-fibers. The grey layer is obtained
from ink-jet printing utilizing ink material one. Similarly, the blue layer is printed
using ink material two. In between the two ink-jet printed ayers, there is one layer of
fibers. By combing these materials together, we are able to manufacture composite
structures with desired properties.

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Figure 1.3: Illustration of Proposed Multi-material Composite 3D

Printing System. (A)Ink-jet Printing System, (B)Measurement System,
(C)Ultra-violet Curing System, (D)Heating System, (E)Five-axis Linear
Stage, (F)Fiber Cut System, (G)Fiber Stamp System

Fig.1.3 shows the schematic of the proposed multi-material 3D printing system.

It has seven major components which are ink-jet printing system, measurement
system, ultra-violet curing system, heating system, five-axis linear stage, fiber cut
system, and fiber stamp system. The actual system setup can be seen in chapter.2
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section.2.2. The substrate is placed on the X and Y axis and customized by printing
a layer of ink onto silicon wafer to ensure the interaction between layers is always
the same. The nozzle is placed above the substrate and is attached to Z axis of the
linear stage. The liquid material cartridge is fed into the nozzle, and connected to
an air vacuum pump which provides the back pressure to hold the ink meniscus at
the tip of nozzle. During the layer printing process, the stage carries the substrate
and travels the entire printing region, during which the nozzle deposits droplets at
the required places on the substrate. After each layer is printed, the stage sends
the substrate to certain location where the ultra-violet curing and heating processes
are carried out to solidify the liquid pattern. Then nano-fiber mats collected from
electro-spinning system will be cut into appropriate size based on user-defined model

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and stamped onto the solidified ink-jetted pattern to manufacture composite parts.

1.2 Ink-jet Printing System

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The diagram in Fig. 1.4 shows a typical ink-jet printing system used for ad-
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ditive manufacturing. The substrate is placed on a three-axis linear stage and cus-
tomized by printing a layer of ink onto silicon wafer to ensure the interaction between
layers is always the same. The nozzle is placed above the substrate and is attached
to Z axis of the linear stage. The liquid material cartridge is fed into the nozzle, and
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connected to an air vacuum pump which provides the back pressure to hold the ink
meniscus at the tip of nozzle. During the layer printing process, the stage carries the
substrate and travels the entire printing region, during which the nozzle deposits
droplets at the required places on the substrate. After each layer is printed, the
stage sends the substrate to certain location where the UV curing process is carried
out to solidify the liquid droplets.

1.2.1 Drop-on-demand Ink-jet Printing

There are two types of jetting mode for Ink-jet system: continuous and drop-
on-demand. To obtain desired pattern, continuous mode is usually implemented
with frequency or ink stream modifications. Continuous ink system has been widely
applied in office printers. However, the ink regulation mechanism cannot guarantee
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Figure 1.4: Typical Ink-jet Printing System. (A)Ultra-violet Curing
System, (B)Ink-jet Nozzle, (C)Substrate, (D)Three-axis Linear Stage

high precision jetting and limit its application in additive manufacturing industry.
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On the other hand, drop-on-demand Ink-jet system is able to realize accurate droplet
deposition. Deposition operation is usually triggered by analog signals and there
are two type of transducers for drop-on-demand technology which are piezoelectric
and thermal materials. When applied voltage, the shape of piezoelectric material
will be changed to propel certain amount of ink out of the nozzle. For thermal
Ink-jet printer, a pulse of current is passed through the heating element to cause
an air bubble to form a droplet of ink onto the substrate. most consumer office
Ink-jet printers use thermal Ink-jet process for its affordability. In comparison, the
piezoelectric Ink-jet provides higher resolution and is more widely used in additive
manufacturing industry.
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Figure 1.5: Piezoelectric Ink-jet System

1.2.1.1 Piezoelectric Ink-jet

Fig.1.5 shows a typical piezoelectric Ink-jet system which includes a piezoelec-

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tric material (crystal), ink chamber and nozzle orifice. When voltage is applied,
the piezoelectric crystal changes shape, which generate a pressure pulse in the fluid
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propelling a droplet of ink from the nozzle [12]. In order to obtain desired profile of
droplets, experiments are required to find out the most appropriate values for the six
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parameters of waveform as listed in Fig.1.6. The rise and dwell time will determine
the volume of ink be propelled out of the nozzle. Appropriate choice of the fall,
echo and final rise time will generate separate droplets with shorter ”tail” as seen
in Fig.1.8.4. Parameter identification tests are recommended to start with positive
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value of voltage between the rise and fall period and twice the value of echo time
compared to dwell time. Four images in Fig.1.8 illustrate an ideal Ink-jet printing
process.

Figure 1.6: Waveform of Trigger Signal for Ink-jet System. (A)Rise

Time, (B)Dwell Time, (C)Fall Time, (D)Echo Time, (E)Final Rise Time
and Voltages
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Figure 1.7: Example of Piezoelectric Ink-jet Process
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1.2.1.2 Thermal Ink-jet

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Figure 1.8: Thermal Ink-jet System

Fig.1.5 shows a typical thermal Ink-jet system which includes a heater, ink
chamber and nozzle orifice. When a pulse of current is passed through the heater
casuing a rapid vaporization of the ink in the liquid chamber to forma bubble. As the
bubble expands, some of the ink will be pushed out of the nozzle onto the substrate
[?].
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1.2.2 Ultraviolet Curing Technology

Figure 1.9: Ultraviolet Curing Process

To obtain solid structures, ink-jet system must be combined with ultraviolet

curing system. The ink material is pre-mixed with photo-initiators which will cause
ink materials to cross-link into a solid when exposed to ultraviolet light source [13].

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From Fig.1.9, the circle filled with green dots represent un-cured ink-jet printed
pattern and the solid pattern on the right illustrate cured ink-jet printed part. The
mechanical properties of UV-cured part depend on the density of photo-initiators
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and ink itself. Part with higher photo-initiator density will need less time for curing
and feels more solid.
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1.3 Electro-spinning System

Fibers are generated by electro-spinning process. Fig.1.10 shows the typical
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setup and working principle of electro-spinning. Electro-spinning draws very fine

(nano or micro scale) fibers from polymer solution by applying very high voltage
between spinneret and collector [2]. The electrostatic will counteract the surface
tension and the stretch the droplets forming a ”Taylor Cone” [14]. If the molecular
cohesion of the liquid is sufficiently high, stream breakup does not occur and a
charged liquid jet is formed. As the stream falls down, it will solidifies rapidly and
forms fibers which will be collected on the collector.
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Figure 1.10: Electro-spinning Process (Figure from [2])