Drop-on-demand drop generators allow the reproducible generation of single droplets. They are thus a flexible scientific tool for basic investigations also on metallic droplets.

Our experimental setup enables the generation of metallic droplets at temperatures up to 1650 °C and maximum drop distances of up to 6.5 m. In this setup, we have implemented various generic model experiments, which allow us, for example, to carry out investigations for the development and validation of cooling models and the in-situ determination of thermodynamic material properties such as surface tension and liquid density. Solidified microspheres can be characterized in a variety of ways, enabling a high-throughput approach to the search for new structural materials.