Standing wave type surface acoustic wave atomizer

A new standing wave type surface acoustic wave (SAW) atomizer is proposed and tested. To investigate atomization characteristics, the earlier progressive wave and the proposed standing wave types of atomizer are compared by means of vibration mode, atomization speed, and electrostatic deposition tests. In the case of the vibration mode and atomization speed tests, the standing wave type showed higher standing wave ratio (SWR) and slower atomization speed than the progressive wave type. In the electrostatic deposition test, a liquid sample is atomized by two types of SAW atomizer combined with two different driving modes, namely continuous and intermittent drive. The deposited dry particles are then measured by field-emission type scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and particle sizes are calculated by image processing software. In the results, only the standing wave with continuous drive showed no second peak within size distribution.