Additive Manufacturing of Ceramic Structures by Laser Engineered Net Shaping

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 alpha-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.