Ceramic Components Built by Stereolithography

Stererolithography (SL) is a rapid prototyping process traditionally used to produce polymeric parts for various applications in aerospace, biomedical, automotive and electronics fields. Though it is a promising process for production of advanced ceramics, a number of critical points need still a proper solution: develop materials for functional prototypes, avoid interlayer delamination, obtain mechanical performances. In this work the production of ceramic green starting from specially formulated photocurable suspensions is presented. In particular, Al2O3 ceramic precursor have been built with an experimental stereolithography system, and the ceramic objects have been obtained from pyrolisis of the organic binder and subsequent sintering. Finally, characterization of mechanical properties and microstructure of the samples is presented. In addition, a 3D System SLA250 machine has been modified in order to build ceramic objects. A new loading vat with varying capacity has been projected and built, in order to produce parts with lower material quantities. The building and recoating parameters of the machine have been studied and modified to work with high-viscosity formulations.