Laser Sintered Ceramics

Selective laser sintering sls is an additive manufacturing am technique that uses a laser as the power source to sinter powdered material typically nylon or polyamide aiming the laser automatically at points in space defined by a 3d model binding the material together to create a solid structure it is similar to selective laser melting.

Laser sintered ceramics.

This process can be captured momentarily by the use of an active illumination imaging system as shown for laser sintering of alumina ceramics in fig. Ceramic components with simple geometries can be obtained by conventional compaction of powder. The laser sintering ls process uses a laser source to provide thermal energy and selectively fuse together particles of a powder material into complex three dimensional shapes in a layer by layer strategy. Applied as inert environments for laser sintering of plastics or metals and are also options for ceramics.

This is especially the case involving oxygen or nitrogen containing atmospheres. For achieving more complex geometries sls. The progress of laser sintering of ceramics is reviewed by focusing on the principles and the potentials of this new technique as one member of a family of additive manufacturing technologies. Indirect sls involves laser melting of a sacrificial organic binder phase in the polymer ceramic composite powder to produce.

The two are instantiations of the same concept. A microscopic melt pool forms instantly at the laser focusing point when the beam scans over a granule material. The manufacturing process is fully automated and computer controlled following the. 2 the merging melting pools form a straight line after the laser track and the joining of several parallel lines forms a rectangular.

Sintering happens naturally in mineral deposits or as a manufacturing process used with metals ceramics plastics and other materials the atoms in the materials diffuse across the boundaries of the particles fusing the particles. In direct sls a laser beam is used as the heating source to locally heat and sinter the deposited ceramic powder layers. Sintering or frittage is the process of compacting and forming a solid mass of material by heat or pressure without melting it to the point of liquefaction. Selective laser sintering melting sls m of ceramic powders is less employed due mainly to low availability of machines appropriate for ceramics laser sintering or melting.

Selective laser sintering sls of ceramic components can be categorized as direct or indirect. This paper aims to provide a review on the process of additive manufacturing of ceramic materials focusing on partial and full melting of ceramic powder by a high energy laser beam without the use of binders selective laser sintering or melting sls slm techniques are first introduced followed by analysis of results from silica sio2 zirconia zro2 and ceramic reinforced metal matrix. The ceramics were densified by vacuum sintering. A lithography based additive manufacturing technique was used for the first time to produce laser emitting transparent 10 at yb doped yttrium aluminum garnet yb yag ceramics from a mixture of oxide powders as starting materials.