Development of maskless-curing slurry stereolithography for fabricating high strength ceramic parts

The aim of this study is to develop a novel maskless-curing slurry stereolithograhy and sintering process which can fabricate high strength ceramic parts. Three dimension printing of additive manufacturing method was used. High performance stereolithography slurry, which was composed of zirconia powder as structure material and methanol as a solvent and a dispersant, could be prepared with colloidal processing. During layer casting, the diaphanous slurry can penetrate into pores of the subjacent layers. After drying, the binder in the penetrated liquid could connect the fresh layer and subjacent layers. Eventually, a gel-like green block could be built layer by layer. In the exposed region, the resin contained in the green block was cured to connect the zirconia powders to be a part of the rigid green part. The obtained rigid green part was then heated up to 300°C for binder burnout, and then sintered at 1350°C to obtain a high dense zirconia ceramic part. The proposed method of maskless-curing slurry was briefly described and it was proved that the good capacity of solidifying thin layer.