Study on the fabrication accuracy of ceramic parts by direct stereolithography

Abstract

Parameters in the stereolithography, drying, and sintering processes of ceramic components had significant influences on the fabrication accuracies. Taguchi's experimental design method was utilised to investigate the relationships between parameters and the fabrication accuracies. In the stereolithography process, line-width compensation had a significant influence on the part's dimensions. On the contrary, scanning speed had an insignificant effect. The vacuum-freeze drying method was used to decrease shrinkage (less than 2.0%) in the drying process. Sintering temperature was the most important factor in the sintering process. According to analysis of the influence of the ladder effect on surface roughness, small layer thickness and large inclination angle (more than 30°) were proposed to improve the surface quality of the produced ceramic parts.

Keywords:

• ceramic stereolithography
• fabrication accuracy
• shrinkage
• surface roughness
• ladder effect

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50835007), the Ph.D. Program Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20090201110038, 20110201120075), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China.