Laser powder bed fusion as a net-shaping method for reaction bonded SiC and B₄C

ABSTRACT

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies for technical ceramics are rapidly emerging. Many of these processes rely on a polymer binder-assisted printing approach followed by de-binding and furnace sintering for densification. However, the required de-binding step is long and sensitive, and the presence of densification shrinkage requires a compensation in design. This study explores laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) as an additive manufacturing method for full net-shaping of reaction bonded silicon carbide (RBSC) and reaction bonded boron carbide (RBBC). During LPBF, silicon is used as a structural binder instead of traditional sacrificial polymer binders. By combining this with liquid silicon infiltration (LSI) as a densification method, long de-binding times and densification shrinkage are avoided. This leads to a net-shaping, additive manufacturing process for RBSC and RBBC ceramics with high Young’s modulus (285 and 308 GPa respectively), flexural strength (220 and 168 MPa) and hardness (2045 and 2242 HV).

KEYWORDS:

• Additive manufacturing
• laser powder bed fusion
• silicon carbide
• boron carbide
• 3-dimensional printing, ceramic

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) under project FWO-G.0956.14N, and the research fund of KU Leuven through project GOA/15/012-SUMMA. Additionally, this work was supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) through OSIP project ESA-OSIP ETD 4000134181/21/NL/GLC/ov.

Notes on contributors

Sebastian Meyers

Sebastian Meyers obtained a master’s degree in aerospace engineering in 2011 and the degree of doctor in mechanical engineering in 2019 at the faculty of Engineering Sciences of KU Leuven. His PhD is titled ‘Additive manufacturing of technical ceramics’ and was granted the ‘best PhD thesis’ award at the 2019 Belgian Ceramic Society meeting. At present, he is a post-doctoral researcher at KU Leuven’s Additive Manufacturing research group, working on LPBF of silicon carbide and boron carbide ceramics, laser sintering of reinforced polymers and laser sintering of alumina ceramics.

Miquel Turón Vinãs

Miquel Turón Viñas obtained his PhD in the field of Materials Science and Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in 2017. His PhD is titled ‘Mechanical properties of co-doped zirconia ceramics’. He worked as a post-doctoral researcher at KU Leuven until 2020, with a main focus on additive manufacturing of technical ceramics, including zirconia and boron carbide. At present, he is a senior scientist at NOVAMEAT.

Jean-Pierre Kruth

Jean-Pierre Kruth obtained his PhD in 1979. He worked at the Institut Technologi Bandung (ITB, Indonesia, 1979–1982). He was nominated full-time professor at KU Leuven in 1987. His main activities involved CAD/CAPP/CAM, production processes, metal cutting, sheet metal manufacturing, non-traditional machining (EDM and laser machining), rapid prototyping and manufacturing, reverse engineering, dimensional metrology and quality control. He is, among others, Fellow of CIRP (International Academy for Production Engineering), Fellow of SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers, Dearborn, USA), Honorary member Romanian Society of Mech. Eng., Member IMEKO/BEMEKO (International/Belgian Measuring Confederation). He is founding board member of several companies involved in RP and AM, including Materialise (1990–1997), Metris (1995–2009, now Nikon Metrology) and LayerWise (2008–today, now 3D Systems). Jean-Pierre Kruth was awarded the Bower award and prize for achievement in science by the Franklin Institute in 2015.

Jef Vleugels

Jozef (Jef) Vleugels obtained a PhD in Applied Biological Science at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering of KU Leuven in 1995. At present, he is Full Professor at the Department of Materials Engineering of KU Leuven and is currently teaching courses on advanced ceramics and powder metallurgy. Keywords describing his research are powder metallurgy, sintering, spark plasma sintering, microwave sintering, processing of ceramics, additive manufacturing, ceramic composites, nanocomposites, cermets, graded materials, cutting tools, wear parts, biomaterials, functional ceramics, microstructural and mechanical properties.

Brecht Van Hooreweder

Brecht Van Hooreweder obtained his PhD, titled ‘Development of accelerated and straightforward fatigue experiments for mechanical components based on scaling laws’ in 2013 at the faculty of Engineering Sciences of KU Leuven. During his post-doctoral research, he worked in close collaboration with the additive manufacturing group of prof. Jean-Pierre Kruth on failure mechanisms of 3D-printed materials. He then became full professor in 2016, taking over from prof. Kruth as head of KU Leuven’s Additive Manufacturing team at the department of Mechanical Engineering. He teaches courses on production techniques, 3D-printing and additive manufacturing. Keywords describing his research are laser powder bed fusion, LPBF machine improvements, process optimisation for new materials, production and behaviour of lattice structures, mechanical properties and fatigue analysis of 3D-printed materials.