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Additive manufacturing of ceramic structures by laser engineered net shaping

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Abstract

Ceramic is an important material with outstanding physical properties whereas impurities and porosities generated by traditional manufacturing methods limits its further industrial applications. In order to solve this problem, direct fabrication of Al2O3 ceramic structures is conducted by laser engineered net shaping system and pure ceramic powders. Grain refinement strengthening method by doping ZrO2 and dispersion strengthening method by doping SiC are proposed to suppress cracks in fabricating Al2O3 structure. Phase compositions, microstructures as well as mechanical properties of fabricated specimens are then analyzed. The results show that the proposed two methods are effective in suppressing cracks and structures of single-bead wall, arc and cylinder ring are successfully deposited. Stable phase of α-Al2O3 and t-ZrO2 are obtained in the fabricated specimens. Micro-hardness higher than 1700 HV are also achieved for both Al2O3 and Al2O3/ZrO2, which are resulted from fine directional crystals generated by the melting-solidification process. Results presented indicate that additive manufacturing is a very attractive technique for the production of high-performance ceramic structures in a single step.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Fangyong Niu, Dongjiang Wu, Guangyi Ma & Bi Zhang

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Connecticut, Washington, USA

    Bi Zhang

Authors
  1. Fangyong Niu
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  2. Dongjiang Wu
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  3. Guangyi Ma
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  4. Bi Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dongjiang Wu.

Additional information

Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos. 51175061, 51402037), Science Fund for Creative Research Groups(Grant No. 51321004), National Basic Research Program of China(973 Program, Grant No. 2015CB057305), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project(Grant No. 2014M551072)

NIU Fangyong, born in 1984, is currently a PhD candidate at Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology, China. He received his master degree from Dalian University of Technology, China, in 2009. His research interest is laser-aided additive manufacture.

WU Dongjiang, born in 1964, is currently an professor at Dalian University of Technology, China. His research interests include laser-aided additive manufacture, laser welding and femtosecond laser processing.

MA Guangyi, born in 1982, is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-traditional Machining Technology of Ministry of Education, Dalian University of Technology. His research interests include laser-aided additive manufacture and laser welding.

ZHANG Bi, born in 1957, is currently a professor at Dalian University of Technology, China. His research interests include precision machining and additive manufacturing.

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Niu, F., Wu, D., Ma, G. et al. Additive manufacturing of ceramic structures by laser engineered net shaping. Chin. J. Mech. Eng. 28, 1117–1122 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2015.0608.078

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3901/CJME.2015.0608.078

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