Developing actuators to drive high-frequency jetting dispensers in the dispensing technology for electronic assembly applications has become a concern in recent years. This study proposed a new jetting dispenser without a displacement amplification mechanism directly actuated by a moving magnet actuator (MMA) to jet small fluid droplets. In this article, the main geometric dimensions of the dispensing cluster including the needle, chamber, and seat-nozzle follow those of previous studies and existing dispensers to reduce design time. The necessary root-mean-square force applied to the dispenser needle, which is the key value for the MMA design, is calculated in detail. An ANSYS Maxwell finite element analysis (FEA) is used to simulate the MMA thrust force and modify geometric dimensions. The droplet size produced by the proposed dispenser is empirically investigated under various backpressure, operating frequency, needle displacement, and fluid temperature conditions. The experimental results indicated that the jet dispenser driven by the moving magnet actuator stably operated at the maximal operating frequency of 80 Hz. Some errors, such as losing droplets and generating small satellite dots around the main dots, did not occur during the operating process. In addition, the size of the proposal dispenser without the displacement-magnifying mechanism was also significantly reduced. To conclude, the jetting dispenser driven by the proposal moving magnet actuator can operate well at a medium frequency and shows great potential for dispensing technologies.

Three electromagnetic-based linear actuators, namely a solenoid actuator (SA), a moving coil actuator (MCA), and a moving magnet actuator (MMA), are proposed for driving the needle in a jet dispenser. The total resistance force acting on the needle during operation, including the damping force, the friction force, the inertia force, the compression spring force, and the backpressure, are measured by an experimental model. The thrust force required to overcome this resistance force is then predicted for each actuator using finite element analysis (FEA) simulations. Simple two-dimensional models of the SA, MCA, and MMA are constructed using the same coil dimensions in every case in order to facilitate an objective comparison between them. Simulations in ANSYS Maxwell software are then performed to adjust the specific dimensions of each actuator structure in such a way as to generate the thrust force required to drive the needle in the jet dispenser with the minimum excitation current possible. The simulation results show that for a maximum needle driving frequency of 250 Hz and a stroke length of 0.5 mm, the excitation current required to generate the necessary thrust force is equal to 1.8 A and 1.9 A for the MCA and MMA models, respectively, when a return spring is not used, and 2.2 A, 3.8 A, and 4.1 A for the SA, MCA, and MMA models, respectively, when a return spring is employed. It is additionally shown that the thrust force drop of the MCA and MMA models is far less than that of the SA model, about 0.7%, 1.8%, and 61% for three models, respectively. Three preliminary designs for jet dispensers incorporating the proposed actuators are also generated for reference purposes.