Effect of Solid Loading on the Property of Al2O3 Ceramics in Stereolithographic Additive Manufacturing

For ceramic stereolithographic (SL) additive manufacturing, the solid loading of ceramic photosensitive slurry plays an important role during the SL process.In this study, Al 2 O 3 ceramics were fabricated by SL additive manufacturing from photosensitive Al 2 O 3 slurries with various solid loadings, and the solid loading-property relationships of Al 2 O 3 ceramic were performed.The effects of solid loading on not only the rheological behavior and curing property of the photosensitive Al 2 O 3 slurry but also the microstructure and mechanical properties of the Al 2 O 3 ceramic were investigated.The results showed that both the viscosity and shear stress increased with the increase of the solid loading.High viscosity was greater than the critical value for self-leveling during the SL process.The curing properties of photosensitive Al 2 O 3 slurries were highly depended on the sold loading.Moreover, clear effects on the defect characteristics of Al 2 O 3 ceramics manufactured from various photosensitive slurries were observed.These manufactured defects are critical for the mechanical behavior of Al 2 O 3 ceramic.In addition, the relationship between rheological behavior and curing property of photosensitive Al 2 O 3 slurry.Meanwhile, the resulting microstructure and mechanical properties of the Al 2 O 3 ceramic were also illustrated.Inhomogeneous structure caused by high viscosity can lead to a sintered ceramic with poor strength.These findings provide fundamental understanding for SL additive manufacturing of ceramics.