Milestone Reached in 3D-Printed Ceramics Technology
Ceramics are more difficult to process than polymers or metals because they can't be cast or machined easily. Traditionally ceramic parts are consolidated from powders by sintering, which introduces porosity and limits both achievable shapes and final strength. Researchers at HRL Laboratories, LLC, have demonstrated an approach to additively manufacture ceramics that overcomes the limits of traditional ceramic processing and enables high-temperature, high-strength ceramic components. The researchers invented a resin formulation that can be 3D printed into parts of almost any shape and size. The printed resin can then be fired, converting it into a high-strength, fully dense ceramic. The resulting material can withstand ultrahigh temperatures in excess of 1700°C and exhibits strength ten times higher than similar materials. The novel process and material could be used in a wide range of applications from large components in jet engines and hypersonic vehicles to intricate parts in microelectromechanical systems and electronic device packaging.
Transcript
00:00:13 hrl Laboratories hit a breakthrough this year demonstrating the possibility to 3D print fully dense ceramic materials that can withstand ultra- high temperatures in excess of 1700° c and exhibit 10 times higher strength than similar materials Oho I'm Zach from hrl Labs we've invented a resin formulation compatible with stereolithography or 3D printing which after printing can be
00:00:38 fired to produce a fully dense ceramic part this is an amazing breakthrough as it allows us to produce free form ceramic parts of extremely strong and temperature resilient Ceramics without any Machining casting or compaction we can leverage many of the benefits of 3D printing the ability to create complex threedimensional Parts with a highly useful engineering material in 3D
00:00:59 printing successive layers of material are formed Under Computer control to create an object these objects can be of almost any shape or geometry a wide variety of materials can be used to create 3D objects including Ceramics but historically Ceramics were of limited use because they were found porous and lacking strength up to now it was not possible to make complex Parts
00:01:23 out of this unique material with our 3D printing process we can easily print pretty much any shape that you desire fire it and then we have a complex shaped part out of a high temperature uh ceramic but our material can be used in 3D printing which results in a fully dense ceramic part which is able to achieve the near theoretical strength of the parent ceramic material as well as
00:01:49 survive extremely high temperatures in air so let's go to the lab and see how we've done this this is a stereo lithography 3D printer that we filled with our newly developed preceramic res we're printing a part by rastering the laser over the part geometry wherever the laser hits the resin it cures into a polymer the unique thing about this preceramic polymer is that we can fire
00:02:13 it to convert it into a ceramic current methods generally produce Parts which are brittle and under Machining can fall apart therefore limiting their applications this ceramic can withstand extremely high temperatures I'm testing it here with a blowtorch the flame exceeds 1,000° and the material doesn't melt or deteriorate also this ceramic has a
00:02:36 really low thermal conductivity so my fingers don't get hot as you can see the material is unchanged if I do the same test with a metal sheet you will see that the metal quickly melts I also have to use tongs because the metal conducts heat much faster 3D printing can be a slow process taking many hours to produce a single comp Le Lex part once the part has been
00:03:02 3D printed it is placed in a high temperature Kil where it is fired [Music] overnight the polymer formation invented by hrl is also compatible with our self-propagating photopolymer wave guide process which can create a part on the order of seconds to minutes The Cutting Edge process and material have the potential to be used
00:03:30 in a myriad of applications in a variety of industries from large components in jet engines and Hypersonic Vehicles all the way to Tiny intricate Parts in micro El electric mechanical systems and electronic device packaging the details have been published in the January 2016 issue of Science magazine [Music]