Abstract
Glass has a number of attractive properties, such as transparency, chemical resistance, good thermal stability and high electrical resistivity, that make it a favourable material for a range of applications, including medical technology, electronics, chemical and pharmaceutical industries. However, compared to metals and polymers, the additive manufacturing of glass is still at a primitive stage. The inherent material properties of glass, i.e. its amorphous structure, lack of ductility and high processing temperatures, make processing of glass by additive manufacturing challenging. This paper describes the laser powder bed fusion of a soda lime silica glass. Optimisation of the laser powder bed fusion process was undertaken and the physical and mechanical properties of the manufactured parts were characterised revealing an average porosity of 12%, a mean flexural strength of 6.5 MPa and a fully amorphous structure. Feasibility examples were successfully demonstrated, indicating that geometrically complex shapes are possible. Even though the manufactured parts are opaque, they could potentially find use in applications where the need for chemical inertness and geometrical complexity surpass the need for transparency as in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries e.g. in the form of continuous flow reactors or structured catalysts.
Highlights
Glass, which is made from natural and plentiful raw materials, has a unique set of physical properties including light transmission, trans parency, chemical durability, thermal stability and electric resistivity
Subtractive methods such as laser ablation or micro-machining are used in the chemical manufacturing, pharma ceutical and electronics industries for complex glass geometries
This study revealed limitations when a 1 mm thick, soda lime silica glass substrate was used over the standard SLM-50 ti tanium platform for the Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) of glass as etching was observed on the lower surface of the glass substrate (Fig. 3a)
Summary
Glass, which is made from natural and plentiful raw materials, has a unique set of physical properties including light transmission, trans parency, chemical durability (with caustic solutions being the common exception), thermal stability and electric resistivity. These properties make glass attractive to a wide range of industries from the architec tural, automotive and aerospace industries to the electronics, packaging, chemical manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries. Separate moulds are required for different glass geometries, increasing costs and embodied carbon in these production processes Subtractive methods such as laser ablation or micro-machining are used in the chemical manufacturing, pharma ceutical and electronics industries for complex glass geometries. Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) [6,7] addresses the
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