Digital light processing‐based additive manufacturing of orientation‐controlled Al2O3 ceramics with improved damage tolerance

Abstract Digital light processing (DLP) provides a promising avenue for constructing ceramic parts with high precision and complex shapes, yet the inherent brittleness and strength‐toughness trade‐off hinder their wide applications. Here, according to DLP 3D printing, the textured alumina ceramic components with horizontally aligned textured microstructure were successfully created by adding anisotropically shaped platelets. As a critical process in the preparation of textured ceramics, the alumina platelets were aligned horizontally during printing by using the special shear fields and forming capabilities of DLP technology. The shrinkage, density, microstructure, mechanical performance, and damage‐tolerance behavior of alumina parts with different platelet concentrations were examined, and the toughening mechanisms were investigated. The strength and toughness of ceramics with 5 vol.% platelet addition are increased by 22% and 43%, respectively, as compared with those without platelets. The improved damage tolerance capabilities were primarily ascribed to the collaborative toughening mechanisms stimulated by the platelet addition, including crack branching, crack deflection, uncracked‐ligament bridging, and platelet pull‐out, which increased the crack tortuosity and consumed more fracture energy. The strategy opens up new opportunities to design complex 3D ceramic geometries with bio‐inspired layered or textured architectures, providing optimized damage tolerance.