Additive manufacturing of green ceramic by selective laser gasifying of frozen slurry

作者:Zhang, Geng; Chen, Hua*; Zhou, Hongwei
来源:Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2017, 37(7): 2679-2684.
DOI:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2017.02.040

摘要

The slurry-based additive manufacturing (AM) of ceramics involves a drying process to form solid support; however, the drying process is time-consuming, and the support is not easily removed. We propose a new AM process for green ceramic that includes freezing a layer of aqueous ceramic slurry, laser gasifying of the frozen-layer ice to process 2D green ware, and removing the support in water to release the 3D ceramic part. With a suitable laser power and scanning speed, this approach can yield a layer that has a thickness of 90 pm, a cantilever structure with a wall thickness of 115 pm and a span of 30 mm without deflection. The casting layer cannot be damaged by using a cryopanel to rapidly freeze the slurry, and redundant frozen materials can be melted in water without swelling. Therefore, this new process can rapidly form a solid support and has a high removal efficiency.