Ingenieurwissenschaften und zugeordnete Tätigkeiten
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- 2017 (2) (entfernen)
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- Englisch (2)
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- 3D printing (2) (entfernen)
An improved method of powder 3D printing leading to dense ceramic parts is presented. The application of powder-based binder jetting 3D printing technologies to technical ceramics is generally limited by the low packing density of the powder and by the need to use a flowable powder. With layer-wise slurry deposition, it is, however, possible to deposit powder beds with high particle packing and furthermore using submicron powders. This method was combined with the binder jetting technology to develop a novel process, named LSD-print. By means of LSD-print, a submicron Al2O3 powder could be processed to produce samples with a density comparable with that of standard pressed samples, both in the green state and after sintering.
Additive manufacturing (3D printing) of ceramics and other materials offers significant advantages compared to conventional production processes for several applications. While ceramics have been extensively investigated in this regard, additive manufacturing of geopolymers have received much less attention to date. In the present contribution we study a ‘standard’ metakaolin-based geopolymer, a fly ash-based geopolymer and a silica-based one-part geopolymer regarding their suitability for additive manufacturing via selective laser curing. Model geometries such as bars and cuboids could be produced by this route. After selective laser curing the specimens were additionally cured at 80 °C for 24 h. The specimens were studied by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). SEM showed that the precursors in all geopolymers had reacted partially and geopolymeric gel had formed. XRD confirmed these results and additionally revealed that the crystalline byproducts (zeolites) in the one-part geopolymer differed from the byproducts observed in conventionally produced samples. This indicates that also the geopolymerization reactions differ between the two synthesis routes. The mechanical strength after selective laser curing and 80 °C-curing appeared to be highest for the metakaolin-based geopolymer. However, SEM also showed that a significant volume of macropores remained in most regions of all specimens, while some regions in the metakaolin-based geopolymer appeared to be significantly denser. These preliminary results demonstrate that selective laser curing offers potential for the production of geopolymers, but more research has to be undertaken to optimize the process.