Abstract
Powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) is currently used to produce high-efficiency, high-density, and high-performance products for a variety of applications. However, existing AM methods are applicable only to metal materials and not to high-melting-point ceramics. Here, we develop a composite material for PBF AM by adding Al2O3 to a glass material using laser melting. Al2O3 and a black pigment are added to a synthesized glass frit for improving the composite strength and increased laser-light absorption, respectively. Our sample analysis shows that the glass melts to form a composite when the mixture is laser-irradiated. To improve the sintering density, we heat-treat the sample at 750 °C to synthesize a high-density glass frit composite. As per our X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis to confirm the reactivity of the glass frit and Al2O3, we find that no reactions occur between glass and crystalline Al2O3. Moreover, we obtain a high sample density of ≥95% of the theoretical density. We also evaluate the composite’s mechanical properties as a function of the Al2O3 content. Our approach facilitates the manufacturing of ceramic 3D structures using glass materials through PBF AM and affords the benefits of reduced process cost, improved performance, newer functionalities, and increased value addition.
Highlights
The widely popular additive manufacturing (AM) approach based on 3D printing can be used to fabricate products with complex shapes and structures without needing a mold; some of these products cannot be fabricated with conventional molds [1,2,3]
3D printing is mainly used for fabricating polymer and metal products rather than ceramics; the direct AM process cannot be applied to ceramics because they require high heat-treatment temperatures [4,5,6,7]
The typical methods of fabricating AM-based 3D ceramic shapes include the stereolithography apparatus (SLA) method [16,17,18], in which a photocurable material is mixed in ceramics, and the binder-jetting method, which injects a binder on ceramic powder [7,19,20,21,22,23,24]
Summary
The widely popular additive manufacturing (AM) approach based on 3D printing can be used to fabricate products with complex shapes and structures without needing a mold; some of these products cannot be fabricated with conventional molds [1,2,3]. Glass-ceramic materials exhibit high chemical stability, high transmittance, excellent hardness, and a relatively low melting temperature (
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