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Additive Manufacturing 14 (2014) 110118
Christian Doppler Laboratory for Photopolymers in Digital and Restorative Dentistry, Vienna University of Technology, Favoritenstrasse 9, 1040 Vienna, Austria
b Institute of Materials Science and Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Favoritenstrasse 9-11/E308, 1040 Vienna, Austria
c Ivoclar Vivadent AG, Bendererstrasse 2, 9494 Schaan, Liechtenstein
Available online 8 September 2014
Abstract
Lithography-based additive manufacturing (AM) is increasingly becoming the technology of choice for the small series or single unit production.
At the TU Vienna a digital light processing (DLP) system was developed for the fabrication of complex technical ceramics, requiring high levels
of detail and accuracy. The DLP-system used in this study creates a ceramic green part by stacking up layers of a photo-curable resin with a solid
loading of around 45 vol.% zirconia. After a thermal debinding and sintering step the part turns into a dense ceramic and gains its final properties.
The native resolution of the DLP process depends on the light engines DMD (digital mirror device) chip and the optics employed. Currently it
is possible to print 3D-structures with a spatial resolution down to 40 m. A modification of the light source allows for the customization of the
light curing strategy for each pixel of the exposed layers. This work presents methods to improve the geometrical accuracy as well as the structural
properties of the final 3D-printed ceramic part by using the full capabilities of the light source. On the one hand, the feasibility to control the
dimensional overgrowth to gain resolution below the native resolution of the light enginea sub-pixel resolutionwas evaluated. Overgrowth
occurs due to light scattering and was found to be sensitive to both exposure time and exposed area. On the other hand, different light curing
strategies (LCSs) and depths of cure (Cd ) were used for the 3D-printing of ceramic green parts and their influence on cracks in the final ceramic
was evaluated. It was concluded that softstart LCSs, as well as higher values for Cd , reduce cracks in the final ceramic. Applying these findings
within the 3D-printing process may be another step toward flawless and highly accurate ceramic parts.
2014 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Ceramic; Zirconia; Photopolymerization; Digital light processing
1. Introduction
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies allow for the
resource-efficient fabrication of highly complex structures on
a layer-by-layer basis directly from 3D data [1]. For engineering applications, AMTs are used to produce near net-shaped
parts made of materials including unfilled polymers, metals or
ceramics. For the shaping of high strength oxide ceramics in particular, the most commonly used AM technologies are: fused
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Table 1
Survey of AM technologies for the manufacturing of structural ceramics; legend to symbols: + good, o average, poor.
Resolution
Surface
quality
Build
speed
Postprocessing
Production
costs
Mech.
properties
Process description
References
FDM
[18,19]
SLM SLS
LENSTM
3DP
DIP
LOM
SL DLP
uses a laser scanner to cure thin lines of slurry and draw the crosssection of the part, whereas the DLP-system cures the whole
layer at once using a light mask, which is dynamically created
by a digital micromirror device. The state of the art for DLP systems are constant parameter light curing strategies (LCS), that
allow the operator to choose the light intensity (mW/cm2 ) and
the exposure time (s) depending on the polymerization characteristics of the slurry. After one layer is completed, a fresh layer
of slurry is coated and the process is repeated until the so-called
green part is built. Different to SLS, where the ceramic particles are shaped and sintered in one step, a green part built with
SL requires a thermal treatmentincluding a binder burnout
(debinding) and sintering stepto achieve a dense ceramic part
(Figs. 1 and 2).
Debinding rates need to be carefully adjusted to the volume
of the green part in order to avoid cracks in the final structure.
Besides a temperature treatment that is too fast, the fabrication
parameters of the green part could influence cracks in the final
structure. Bae and Halloran [4] showed in a study the influence of
fabrication parameters of a green part made by SLA on cracks in
the final ceramic. They conclude that residual monomer in gaps
in the light-curing pattern of the laser beam leads to cracks in
[20,21]
[22]
[19]
[23,24]
[25,26]
[6,27]
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Fig. 2. Green parts (a), sintered parts (b), and a cellular structure [28] made of ZrO2 (c) fabricated by using the DLP-based technology presented in this paper.
light curing. The micromirrors reflect the light either toward the
material vat (on) or away from it onto a light absorber (off) to
create light or dark pixels. The DLP-system allows for the fabrication of green parts at an x/y resolution of 40 m. The size of
the building platform is 76.8 mm 43.2 mm. A binary bitmap
transfers the geometrical information of a layer to the DLPsystem and a sequence file determines the order and timing in
which the image is to be displayed and hence enables grayscales
of the image. When the micromirrors of the DMD are switched
on more frequently than off, the image appears to be brighter
(higher intensity). When the micromirrors are switched off more
frequently than on, the image appears to be darker (lower intensity). With a combination of multiple images and a sequence
file, grayscales for every single pixel of the exposed layer could
be created. The creation of the images and the sequence file
was performed in MATLAB (R2011b, The Mathworks Inc.,
MA). A standard pulse width modulation (PWM) algorithm was
used to convert an analog light intensity curve to a digital (on,
off) signal for the light engine. Sampling rates for the PWM
ranged from 20 Hz to 100 Hz, depending on the length of the
LCS.
2.2. Ceramic lled photocurable slurry
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gauge. To further investigate the influence of oxygen inhibition on Cd , the slurry was degassed under vacuum prior to the
investigation.
2.5. Inuence of LCS and Cd on cracks after thermal
treatment
Fig. 4. Overlays of the exposed test patterns (marked pixels) and the light cured
samples for the outside case (a) and the inside case (b).
Fig. 5. Exponential (exp(x) 1, exp(x) 2) and soft start (softstart 1, softstart 2) LCS compared to constant curing (reference). 100% light intensity equals 13 mW/cm2 .
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Fig. 7. Overgrowth of the outside length as a function of rectangle side length and exposure duration.
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Fig. 8. Overgrowth of the inside length as a function of side length and exposure duration.
Fig. 9. Measured Cd for different light curing parameters. The solid lines represent the results for the same intensity (iso-intensity); the dashed lines show the same
level of energy dose (iso-energy).
horizontal cracks (Fig. 12(b)). Cylinders fabricated with the softstart LCS showed no vertical cracks and only smaller horizontal
cracks. The fewest cracks were observed for the LCS softstart 2
(Fig. 12(d)).
Fig. 10. Cd for degassed (dashed lines) and regular (solid lines) slurry.
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Fig. 11. Side view (a) and top view (b) of a sintered reference cylinder built with a constant light intensity curing protocol at 13 mW/cm2 light intensity and 1.5 s
exposure duration; lines mark the cracks visible within the ceramic.
Fig. 12. Sintered specimens fabricated with exponential LCS exp(x) 1 (a) and exp(x) 2 (b) and softstart LCS softstart 1 (c) and softstart 2 (d). Lines of crack
propagation are highlighted.
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Fig. 13. Flawless cylindrical part fabricated with the LCS softstart 2 and a Cd
of 150 m.
for 2.5 s completes the curing of the slurry and ensures the bonding to the previous layer. We have concluded that a higher depth
of cure increases the bonding of the layers and improves the
structural properties of the final ceramic part.
Fig. 14. SEM micrographs of fracture surfaces of green parts fabricated at a Cd of 75 m (a) and 150 m (b).
Fig. 15. Result of TMA measurements. The samples were heated up to 400 C at a heating rate of 0.1 K/min.
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