Alumina ceramics printed by multi jet fusion and stereolithography

Abstract

This study examines the feasibility of printing ceramic parts using MJF process. By using HP’s MJF machine, alumina and PA12 powder mixture was used to print ceramic samples. It was found that even though the parts were printed, it was difficult to be removed from the build platform as the samples are fused with the surrounding samples. SLA printed alumina samples was used to conduct compression and bending stress. From experiments, the compression testing alumina samples could withstand a compression load of 100 kN and did not fracture. The Young’s modulus was found to between 20.5 GPa to 26 GPa. From the bending tests, it was found that compression rate did not have a significant impact on the Flexural modulus, maximum stress and strain of the alumina samples. The Flexural modulus was between 23.68 GPa to 17.4 GPa and the maximum bending stress before fracture was between 175.54 MPa and 201.96 MPa. For future works, alumina samples will need to be printed via MJF and experiments need to be conducted on the samples to study on its mechanical properties, which can then be used to compare with SLA printed specimens. Higher load will need to be used to cause fracture in the SLA compression specimen.