3D fine scale ceramic components formed by ink-jet prototyping process

doi:10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2005.03.223

Journal of the European Ceramic Society

Volume 25, Issue 12, 2005, Pages 2055-2059

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2005.03.223 Get rights and content

Abstract

Different investigations have been carried out to optimize an ink-jet printing technique, devoted to the fabrication of 3D fine scale ceramic parts, by adjustment of the fluid properties of the ceramic suspensions and by controlling the ejection and impact phenomena. A 10 vol.% PZT loaded suspension characterized by a Newtonian behavior corresponding to a viscosity of 10 mPa s and to a ratio Re/We^1/2 of 5.98 has been selected. The ejection and impact phenomena strongly depend on the driving parameters of the printing head, in particular the formation of the droplet, with satellite or not, as well as its velocity and volume are function of the pulse amplitude. Moreover, the conditions of ejection (droplet velocity and volume) control the characteristics of the deposit (definition, spreading and thickness uniformity). Green PZT pillar array corresponding to the skeleton of 1–3 ceramic polymer composite for imaging probes has been achieved by ink-jet printing with a definition equal to 90 μm.

Introduction

Ink-jet printing process has been recently explored as a solid freeforming fabrication (SFF) technique to produce 3D ceramic parts.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Numerous solid freeform fabrication techniques to form ceramic parts have been developed during the last decade. They consist in building ceramic parts by depositing the material, layer by layer, on the basis of computer-aided design (CAD) files of the structures. By a simple modification of the file, it becomes possible to change the configuration of the component; therefore, these methods are specifically appropriate to generate 3D complex ceramic structures without expensive tooling for prototypes or even for small productions. The prototyping techniques developed up to now for ceramic parts such as the stereolithography,12, 13, 14, 15, 16 the fused deposition modeling17, 18 and the selective laser sintering¹⁹ are characterized by definition around 150 μm, and do not allow to deposit different materials on the same layer. In comparison, ink-jet printing prototyping process opens the way to the development of multifunctional 3D fine scale ceramic parts.

In fact, ink-jet printing prototyping process consists in the deposition of ceramic system micro-droplets (a few pl) ejected via nozzles to build the successive layers of the 3D structures. Consequently, by adjustment of the aperture of the printing head and the control of the spreading phenomenon of the droplet, one can expect to reach a standard definition around 50 μm which could finally decrease to 10 μm, in taking into account the tremendous evolution in the printing field. Moreover, this technique exhibits the additional capability to deposit different materials on the same layer via a multi-nozzle system.

Consequently, thanks to its high flexibility in terms of design because of its capability to deposit different materials with a high definition, this technique may be applied in particular to the production of sophisticated microelectronic devices integrating metallic connection network (packaging, microactuators or sensors, etc.).

The recent developments concerning the fabrication of ceramic parts by ink-jet printing techniques are carried out according two routes: (i) the deposition of hot-melted ceramic loaded wax,5, 6, 7 which solidifies by impact on cold substrate or (ii) the deposition of ceramic suspensions which dry by evaporation of the solvent that uses systems initially devoted to ink-jet printing on paper.1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11

This paper is focused on the second route, in the case of a drop-on-demand type technique, which consists to eject an ink drop at the good place and time by actuating a piezoelectric element.²⁰ A specific equipment has been achieved at SPCTS laboratory with a system of printing head displacement characterized by a resolution of 0.5 μm, a reproducibility of 2 μm and an accuracy of 2 μm. Added to an optimization of the suspension and to an adjusted electric driving of the printing heads, this equipment is very promising for the fabrication of ceramic parts with high definition, i.e. corresponding to 10 μm in the X/Y plane and to 1 μm in the Z direction. Consequently, in order to reach these objectives, different investigations have been carried out to optimize the process through (i) the adjustment of the fluid properties of the ceramic suspensions; (ii) the control of the ejection and impact phenomena.

Section snippets

Adjustment of the fluid properties of the ceramic volatile suspensions

At first, the particle size distribution of the powder must be adjusted in order that a ratio of 50 between the radius of the nozzle aperture and the Ø₉₀ of the powder should be obtained to avoid the blocking of the nozzle. Consequently, in our case, as the aperture of the printing head is equal to 60 μm, the Ø₉₀ of the PZT powder is adjusted by attrition milling to 1 μm.

Then, the suspension formulation was optimized in terms of the nature and of the content of the different organic compounds

Control of the ejection and impact phenomena

As the definition of the ink-jet printed ceramic structures strongly depends on the velocity, the initial size and the path of the droplet just before spreading, it is essential to control these different characteristics as a function of the driving parameters of the printing head. To obtain this data, this successively requires (i) the acquisition of the ejection images via a CCD camera; (ii) the image treatment; and (iii) the analysis of the image to extract the position of the droplet as a

Fabrication of PZT parts by ink-jet printing

In order to demonstrate the feasibility of 3D fine scale ceramic parts by ink-jet printing, our investigations have been focused on the case of the PZT skeleton of 1–3 piezoelectric ceramic polymer composite used for medical imaging probes (Fig. 8). In fact, the ink-jet printing process could lead to the evolution of medical imaging probes in terms of performances thanks to the improvement (i) of their spatial resolution by generating fine ceramic structures and (ii) of their configuration by

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude towards the European Community (the European Social Funds) and the Limousin Region for their financial support of the present work.

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3D fine scale ceramic components formed by ink-jet prototyping process

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Adjustment of the fluid properties of the ceramic volatile suspensions

Control of the ejection and impact phenomena

Fabrication of PZT parts by ink-jet printing

Acknowledgements

Mater. Sci. Eng.

J. Eur. Ceram. Soc.

The computer aided manufacture of ceramics using multilayer jet printing

J. Mater. Sci. Lett.

Microengeneering of ceramics by direct ink-jet printing

J. Am. Ceram. Soc.

Solid freeforming of ceramics using a drop-on-demand jet printer

Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng.

Direct ink-jet deposition of ceramic green bodies I–II

Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc.

Ink-jet printing of wax-based alumina suspension

J. Am. Ceram. Soc.

Freeform fabrication by controlled droplet deposition of powder filled melts

J. Mater. Sci.

PZT pillars for 1–3 composites prepared by ink-jet printing

J. Mater. Sci. Lett.

A drop-on-demand ink-jet printer for combinatorial libraries and functionally graded ceramics

J. Comb. Chem.