3D Net-Shape Manufacturing of Complex Ceramic Parts by High Resolution Stereo Lithography – Examples of Application to Biomedical and Industrial Products

Abstract

Solid Freeform Fabrication (SFF) processes are fairly new shaping methods, which allow the direct fabrication of complex ceramic structures, without tooling or machining, on the basis of a component CAD file. SFF techniques provide an attractive answer for applications with the need to produce custom designs while also controlling the product structure or producing multimaterial devices demanding improved properties or multifunctional components. Stereolithography (SL) is a layer manufacturing process based on the space-resolved polymerisation of a UV photocurable compound consisting in a dispersion of ceramic particles in a monomer containing a photoinitiator. Improvements in the SL process, notably understanding and driving the key parameters influencing the 3D resolution of the reactive compound, now make it possible to directly manufacture useful 3D ceramic parts with final properties similar or identical to those obtained from traditional processes. SL processing applications are numerous and include medical implants, complex microwave devices, refractory molds and cores, MEMS, microfluidic networks for micro reactors, drug delivery devices or biological analysis, etc...