Systems for fiber guidance

Abstract

Provided herein is a system for guiding polymeric fibers using ultrasonic waves. In particular, this application discloses a system of producing fibers including an emitter, a fiber guidance system, and a collector. The emitter supplies the polymer jet into the fiber guidance system. The fiber guidance system includes a phased array of transducers and a control system. The control system directs the phased array of transducers to generate acoustic energy to create an acoustic hologram and guide the polymer jet in space to form the polymer fiber before it is collected in the collector.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for forming a polymer fiber, the system comprising:
 a reservoir for holding a polymer solution;   an emitter for emitting a jet of the polymer solution from the reservoir to form a polymer jet, whereby the polymer jet solidifies into a fiber; and   a fiber guidance system comprising a phased array of transducers and a control system, the control system configured to direct the phased array of transducers to generate acoustic energy for creating an acoustic hologram operative to guide the polymer jet in space as the polymer jet is emitted from the emitter whereby the fiber is formed to correspond with the acoustic hologram generated by the phased array of transducers.   
     
     
         2 . The system as set forth in  claim 1 , wherein each of the transducers is an ultrasonic transducer. 
     
     
         3 . The system as set forth in  claim 2 , wherein the acoustic hologram creates a pattern of air pressure including at least one low-pressure guide channel, the system configured to emit the polymer jet along the low-pressure guide channel. 
     
     
         4 . The system as set forth in  claim 3 , wherein the low-pressure guide channel has a width, the width of the low-pressure channel being determined by a holographic aperture created by the phased array of transducers. 
     
     
         5 . The system as set forth in  claim 3 , wherein the pattern of air pressure is configured to cause the polymer jet to twist as the polymer jet is emitted along the low-pressure guide channel. 
     
     
         6 . The system as set forth in  claim 1 , wherein the acoustic hologram is a dynamic acoustic hologram formed by the phased array of transducers along a travel length of the polymer jet. 
     
     
         7 . The system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising a driver configured to apply an electrostatic force to drive emission of the polymer jet from the emitter. 
     
     
         8 . The system as set forth in  claim 1 , wherein the emitter is configured to emit the polymer jet along an emission axis. 
     
     
         9 . The system as set forth in  claim 8 , wherein the phased array of transducers comprises at least one transducer layer comprising n transducers circumferentially spaced apart about the emission axis in spacing increments of n/360 degrees. 
     
     
         10 . The system as set forth in  claim 8 , wherein the phased array of transducers comprises a plurality of layers of transducers stacked along the emission axis. 
     
     
         11 . The system as set forth in  claim 10 , wherein the phased array of transducers is arranged in a rectangular pattern stacked along the emission axis. 
     
     
         12 . The system as set forth in  claim 1 , wherein the fiber guidance system comprises a plurality of circuit boards, each circuit board configured to connect a subset of the transducers to the controller. 
     
     
         13 . The system as set forth in  claim 12 , wherein the control system includes a microcontroller for each circuit board, each microcontroller configured to actuate the respective subset of the transducers at a plurality of phases corresponding to the acoustic hologram. 
     
     
         14 . The system as set forth in  claim 13 , wherein each microcontroller comprises a gate driver connecting the respective subset of the transducers to the respective microcontroller and a transducer power supply, each microcontroller configured to signal the respective gate driver to actuate the transducers with power from the transducer power supply. 
     
     
         15 . The system as set forth in  claim 14 , wherein the control system further comprises a synchronization system connected to each of the microcontrollers and configured to synchronize the plurality of phases of the microcontrollers. 
     
     
         16 . The system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising an expressing actuator and an expressing controller, the expressing actuator configured to express the polymer from the reservoir through the emitter, the expressing controller configured to control a rate of expression of the polymer from the reservoir through the emitter. 
     
     
         17 . The system as set forth in  claim 1 , wherein the emitter comprises a plurality of emitters, each of the plurality of emitters configured to emit a respective polymer jet. 
     
     
         18 . The system as set forth in  claim 17 , wherein the acoustic hologram is operative to guide each of the polymer jets in space. 
     
     
         19 . The system as set forth in  claim 18 , further comprising a grounding plate operable to collect the fiber once said fiber travels through space to the grounding plate. 
     
     
         20 . The system as set forth in  claim 19 , further comprising a non-conductive collector positioned below the grounding plate, whereby the grounding plate includes an aperture for the fiber to pass through the grounding plate to the non-conductive collector.