Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion (CODE) is an extrusion-based additive manufacturing process recently developed for fabricating dense, functional ceramic components. This paper presents a further development of this process and focuses on fabricating 3 mol% yttria-stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) components that cannot be fabricated without using support structures. The 3YSZ paste is deposited through the main nozzle, and a polycaprolactone (PCL) pellet feedstock is melted and deposited through an auxiliary nozzle to build support structures. After a green part is printed and dried, the support structures are removed by heating the part to ~70 ⁰C to melt the PCL. The part is then sintered at 1550 ⁰C to achieve near theoretical density. The maximum angle of overhanging feature that can be fabricated without support was determined to be 60⁰. Sample parts were fabricated and evaluated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the PCL support material and CODE's capability to fabricate geometrically complex parts.
- Additives,
- Ceramics industry,
- Extrusion,
- Ground supports,
- Nozzles,
- Yttria stabilized zirconia,
- Yttrium oxide,
- Zirconia, Additive manufacturing process,
- Complex parts,
- Extrusion process,
- Functional ceramics,
- On demands,
- Support materials,
- Support structures,
- Theoretical density, Fabrication
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/greg-hilmas/258/
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the National Energy Technology Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy under the grant number DE-FE0012272.