VIVA – Vision Inspection for Volume Assembly – Optimization of Spray performance of Spray Nozzle Chips
Company Overview
The project VIVA brings together a consortium of partners including Applied Nanotechnology Research group at Saxion and Medspray Technology & Manufacturing BV. The consortium is working together to develop an innovative process for the assembly and quality control of nozzle chips used in Spray Nozzle Units (SNUs). This master thesis assignment will be mainly held in Medspray.
Medspray designs and manufactures advanced spray nozzles for administering pharmaceuticals, application of local anesthetics and for use in air care. These nozzles produce fine droplets by using Rayleigh jets through micro engineered pores in a silicon nozzle plate. Each application benefits from a custom-designed nozzle chip to ensure optimal spray performance.
Project Background
Medspray is optimizing its nozzle chip design by minimizing non-functional chip area to reduce overall footprint. However, with reduced chip area also the active spray area is reduced. To mitigate this, the nozzle membrane architecture is being reengineered to enhance mechanical strength, spray efficiency, and reliability. These improvements aim to support a higher nozzle density without compromising spray performance or application versatility.
Assignment Description
In this ongoing study, the student will focus on the jets and the spray performance, but the student will also verify that earlier work on strength is not changed.
The student will:
- Evaluate existing nozzle chip prototypes by inspecting their physical characteristics and analyzing the nozzle membrane geometry in comparison to the original design specifications.
- Evaluate the spray performance of reengineered membranes.
- Study the influence of the mechanical reinforcement on the jet direction. It is an objective of the assignment to obtain a model that describes the jet deflection with respect to the physical structure.
- FEM analysis may help in obtaining more details in the expected result. Based on the findings, new prototype designs to test theory and improve characterization.
- If time permits, these will be fabricated and experimentally validated to assess the accuracy of the FEM model.
Facilities & Supervision
All inspection and experimental activities will be carried out in Medspray’s cleanroom and laboratory facilities. Modeling and simulation will be done in close collaboration with the Applied Nanotechnology faculty at Saxion University of Applied Sciences.
Desired Skills
Desired skills Experience in COMSOL modelling and an understanding about micro-fabrications, structural mechanics, and fluid dynamics.
Project duration:
Project ideally takes 9 months and preferably start before June 2026.
Internship or graduation project:
Master thesis only
Educational programs:
- Applied Physics (TN),
- Mechanical Engineering (WTB),
- Mechatronics (MT),
- Electrical Engineering (ET)
- Applied Computer Science (TI)
- Nanotechnology
Interested, please send your motivation letter and CV before the 30th April 2026 to appliednanotechnology.led@saxion.nl and include Dr. Sevilay Akca s.akca@saxion.nl in CC.