Improving the accuracy of stereolithography 3D printed Al2O3 microcomponents by adding photoabsorber: Fundamentals and experiments

Ceramic microcomponents have a wide range of applications in microfluidic, sensors, etc. Stereolithography 3D printing technology provided a shortcut for the preparation of this small-size and complex component. With the development of device miniaturization, the existing stereolithography forms cannot meet the demand. To prepare smaller components, it is necessary to decrease the slice thickness (Cs). But during the stereolithography 3D printing, ceramic is usually easy to over-cure, leading to the key issue in the stereolithography of ceramic microcomponents: the mismatching between the curing thickness (Cp) and the slice thickness (Cs). To solve the problem above, this paper started from the stereolithography mechanism of the ceramic/resin slurry and adjusted the matching relationship between Cp and Cs theoretically by adding a photoabsorber. Then, from the experiments, the influence of different content of photoabsorber (carbon black) on curing thickness, printing accuracy, and sintering accuracy, were studied. Al2O3 ceramic microcomponents that met the design requirements were thus prepared. These results would help in the development of stereolithography 3D printing of ceramic microcomponents.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study successfully addressed the key issue of mismatching between curing thickness and slice thickness in the stereolithography of ceramic microcomponents by adding a photoabsorber. It resulted in the preparation of microcomponents that meet the design requirements.