Additive Manufacturing of 94% Alumina and Tracking its Chemical Signature During the Thermal Post-Process
Sofia Gomez, University of Texas at El Paso
Alumina ceramic materials possess material properties such as thermal stability, oxidation resistance, and high hardness that make them desirable for energy applications [1]. The traditional manufacturing of alumina has been thoroughly investigated and done by using techniques such as dry pressing and slip casting [2]. Within the past 35 years, research of ceramics additive manufacturing has flourished following the invention of Binder Jetting in 1989 [3]. Vat photopolymerization (VPP) is an additive manufacturing technique that uses a light source to solidify a photosensitive ceramic slurry layer-by-layer until the 3D model is completed. While additive manufacturing of ceramics can enhance the freedom of design, cut fabrication time, and waste reduction, there are defects that may arise during the thermal post-process. The thermal post-process is designed to effectively disintegrate the photopolymer binder to have a fully dense ceramic part. In this work, VPP technology was utilized to fabricate ceramics components layer-by-layer, using a layer thickness of 25µm. More specifically, the Lithoz’s Cerfab 8500 printer was used to print alumina components using lithography ceramic-based manufacturing, a subset of VPP. The chemical composition was tracked by using an array of chemical characterization techniques such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and X-Ray fluorescence. Cross sections of the 3D printed ceramic components were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy.