Development of 3D Printing Technology with Ceramic Paste and Study of Properties of Printed Corundum Products

Abstract

Today 3D printing with ceramics is a promising direction in the development of additive technologies. In this work, we have developed a technology for printing with ceramic pastes based on aluminum oxide and wax, namely: an extruder for printing with ceramic pastes was modeled and manufactured, the composition of the slip was selected and the paste for printing was made. After choosing the print parameters, test samples were printed: a disk and a box. Since 3D printing with ceramics is just one of the stages of manufacturing ceramic products, then we selected the parameters for drying and sintering the raw material. Drying of products is necessary to burn off an excess amount of a binder (paraffin), and due to sintering; the raw material acquires final strength and mechanical characteristics. After sintering, the sintering parameters and physical and mechanical properties of the products were measured. The microstructure of the printed products was studied using scanning electron microscopy. The phase change during sintering was studied by X-ray analysis. All obtained properties were compared with a reference sample (corundum tile made of aluminum oxide of the same grade, but using traditional ceramic technology, including pressing, drying and sintering of the product). In terms of all properties, the printed ceramics are not significantly inferior to the reference sample; however, in general, the additive technology has more advantages, such as a wide variety of shapes, shorter manufacturing time for parts, and lower energy costs.