Open Access

This publication is the final report on the proficiency test (PT) LS BAM-5.4-2024 „Measurement of the particle size distribution of ceramic powders by laser diffraction”. The PT was organized by the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), division 5.4 “Advanced Multi-materials Processing”, Germany. The measurements took place from 2024/05 to 2024/07. The aim of the interlaboratory comparison was the proficiency assessment of the participating laboratories. The PT was performed in accordance with DIN EN ISO/IEC 17043:2010. The harmonized measurement procedure was based on ISO 13320:2020The statistical analysis was performed in accordance with DIN ISO 13528:2020 by use of the software PROLab (QuoData GmbH, Dresden, Germany). A group of 35 laboratories from 14 countries participated in the PT. Laser diffraction analyzers produced by 7 different manufacturers were used. The three test materials were commercial ceramic powders. Overall, the measured characteristic values of the particle size distributions (d10,3, d50,3 and d90,3) were in the size range between 1 and 35 μm. The final report contains all individual results in an anonymous form.

Powder bed technologies are amongst the most successful Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques. The application of these techniques to most ceramics has been difficult so far, because of the challenges related to the deposition of homogeneous powder layers when using fine powders. In this context, the "layerwise slurry deposition" (LSD) has been developed as a layer deposition method enabling the use of powder bed AM technologies also for advanced ceramic materials. The layerwise slurry deposition consists of the layer-by-layer deposition of a ceramic slurry by means of a doctor blade, in which the slurry is deposited and dried to achieve a highly packed powder. Not only very fine, submicron powders can be processed with low organics, but also the dense powder bed provides excellent support to the parts built. The latest development of this technology shows that it is possible to print ceramic parts in a continuous process by depositing a layer onto a rotating platform, growing a powder bed following a spiral motion. The unique mechanical stability of the layers in LSD-print allows to grow a powder bed several centimeters thick without any lateral support. The continuous layer deposition allows to achieve a productivity more than 10X higher compared to the linear deposition, approaching a build volume of 1 liter/hour.

Photon-based additive manufacturing technologies such as SLA, DLP, LCM, moreover volumetric two-photon-polymerization, Xolography and holographic technologies promise the highest accuracy and dimensional freedom. But to transfer the light through the feedstock it needs sufficient transparency at the used light wavelength. Ceramic particles used for powder processing routes act as scattering sites and therefore hinder the light transmission, unless… The particle size and particle size distribution are chosen small and narrow enough. Particles which are smaller than roughly 1/10th of the light wavelength, mostly nanoparticles around 5nm size, decrease scattering vastly. This turns resins even with homogeneously distributed ceramic weight fraction of up to 80% transparent again. Feedstocks could be prepared for the highly accurate two-photon-polymerization gaining the smallest yttria stabilized zirconia structures with a resolution of 500nm and unique mechanical properties. The same feedstocks could be applied to DLP and LCM as layer-by-layer AM-technologies for bigger parts. Hybridizing both technologies lead to ceramic parts with microscopic accuracy at macroscopic dimensions. The feedstock was even applied to the volumetric Xolography with the highest transparency requirement so far and to versatile and flexible holographic AM. Highly filled nano-particle containing transparent ceramic feedstocks open the way for technical ceramics in high precision manufacturing where the performance and durability and accessibility are increased and created by the unique ceramic properties such as mechanical strength, chemical and thermal resistance and biocompatibility

Advanced ceramics printed with photon-based additive manufacturing deals with anisotropic mechanical properties from the layer-by-layer manufacturing. Motivated by the success in using highly filled transparent slurries containing nanoparticles for powder-based two-photon-polymerization (2PP) for advanced ceramic printing, this works approach is the transfer to Xolography, a volumetric additive manufacturing technology based on linear two-photon excitation and without recoating steps. This paper reports the results of a preliminary investigation optimizing the photocurable slurry to the requirements of Xolography in terms of transparency, over a significantly larger mean free path, compared to 2PP. A feedstock filled with 70 % weight fraction of ceramic particles (∼30 vol%) exhibiting an exceptionally high degree of transparency in the relevant wavelength range of 400–800 nm was prepared from 5 nm zirconia nanoparticles. The high transparency of the photocurable slurry is attributed to the near-monomodal particle size distribution of the zirconia nanoparticles used.

The BAMline at the synchrotron X-ray source BESSY II (Berlin, Germany) is supporting researchers especially in materials science [1]. As a non-destructive characterization method, synchrotron X-ray imaging, especially tomography (SXCT) with hard X-Rays, plays an important role in structural 3D characterization. The imaging capabilities allow for in-situ and operando experiments. In this presentation the equipment, data handling pipeline as well as various examples from material science are presented. In series-connected lithium-ion cells are susceptible to an electrical safety hazard called over-discharge. Here the behavior of copper dissolution and deposition during over-discharge is presented, which leads to irreversible loss of capacity and internal short circuits. The concentration of dissolved and deposited copper is quantified. Also, a non-uniform distribution pattern of copper deposition on the cathode is shown. The second example deals with an Al alloy 7017 customized for a 3d-printing process by means of laser-based powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) technique. These advanced alloys have a significantly higher modulus of elasticity than conventional Al alloys, making them attractive for applications requiring high stiffness. SXCT during In-situ tensile tests confirmed that fracture initiation strongly depends on defects created during printing. However, the cracks are deflected from decohesion around inclusions/precipitates embedded in the Al matrix, increasing ductility. Low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) multilayer housings offer 3D-circuits for a wide range of applications in telecommunications, microsystems and sensor technology. Such housings are produced by combining structured and metallized ceramic layers using tape-casting and multilayer technology. The characterization of the integrity, deformation, defects, and positioning of the internal metal features was carried out using in-situ SXCT at up to 950°C. A high-precision nail penetration tool was developed to characterize the mechanically induced thermal runaway (TR) of lithium-ion battery (LIB) cells in a dynamic temperature range down to -190 °C. To investigate safety-specific low-temperature transport conditions, the damaged cells were tomographically imaged during thawing.