Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Practical guidelines for ceramic vat photopolymerization developments
Submission Author:
Italo Leite de Camargo , SP
Co-Authors:
Italo Leite de Camargo, Mateus Mota Morais, Carlos Fortulan
Presenter: Italo Leite de Camargo
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-0061
Abstract
Ceramic materials are known for their remarkable properties such as high-temperature resistance, hardness, and chemical inertia. Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing is an emerging set of processes that fabricate parts by adding material layer-by-layer. Applied to ceramics, AM allows the fabrication of small series and customized components with greater geometric freedom, lower cost, and reduced delivery time. Among the AM technologies, vat photopolymerization stands out for its ability to produce complex ceramic parts with excellent dimensional accuracy, surface finish, and mechanical properties comparable to those from conventional methods. This technology has a potential application in different areas such as ceramic membranes, tissue engineering, catalytic applications, ceramic core for investment casting, dental restoration, among others. However, there is a shortage of commercial feedstock for producing ceramics by vat photopolymerization. As a consequence, the research and development of ceramic photosensitive suspensions have been in the spotlight in the last few years. Although each application is unique, some common factors are essential for successful ceramic manufacturing by vat photopolymerization related to feedstock (solid loading, rheological behavior, photosensitive suspensions, etc.), 3D printing, and post-processing (cleaning, debinding, and sintering). However, some important technical details are often omitted in publications or are dispersed in the literature. Thus, this study proposes a general guideline for future developments related to the vat photopolymerization of ceramic materials. It considers the selection of monomers, photoinitiators, and dispersants; the determination of their concentrations; the preparation of the 3D printer; the setting of the printing parameters, and the definition of debinding protocol. This guideline, resulting from the authors' extensive experience related developments with different materials, is believed to be valuable to other researchers in the area.
Keywords
3D printing, Additive manufacturing, Ceramics, digital light processing, vat photopolymerization
