Solid Mouldless Forming Method for Advanced Ceramics

Solid dieless forming was a collaboration between H Marcus and MIT's E. Sechs proposed a new method for ceramic forming process, collectively known as solid free form manufacturing, using the concept of integrated manufacturing. This method is also translated as "solid free form manufacturing".

1. The process principle and process of solid formless forming

The basic principle and process of solid dieless forming technology is to directly use the CAD design results of a computer to slice and segment complex three-dimensional components through computer software, forming pixel unit files that can be executed by a computer. Then, through external devices similar to computer printouts, the ceramic powder to be formed quickly forms actual pixel units, and the results of unit by unit stacking can directly form the required three-dimensional components.

2. Process characteristics of solid formless forming

Compared with traditional forming methods, solid formless forming technology has the following characteristics:

(1) During the forming process, no molds or models are required to participate, making the production process more integrated. The manufacturing cycle is shortened and production efficiency is improved.

(2) The geometric shape and dimensions of the molding machine can be changed at any time through a computer software processing system, without waiting for the design and manufacturing of the mold, which greatly shortens the development time of new products.

(3) Because the size of the external shaping printing pixel unit can be as small as micrometer, the shaping method can be used to prepare micro Electroceramics devices for life sciences and small satellites.

(4) Combined with modern intelligent technology, it will further improve the level of ceramic preparation industry and match the progress of this field with other industrial manufacturing fields.

3. Main types of solid formless forming

Solid state mold less forming technology is actually composed of two parts: one is a computer software system, mainly used for shape and micro area component structure design, graphic processing, and pixel output; The second is peripheral output devices and technologies, which are used to structure computer output instructions and convert digital commands into actual ceramic shaped pixel units for output operations. The latter is a key issue that urgently needs to be addressed in achieving solid formless forming. Different material systems and output methods have formed unique solid formless forming processes.

So far, more than 20 solid formless forming technologies have emerged. Some of these solid formless forming technologies have formed various commercial applications in industries such as mechanical manufacturing and polymers. However, the research on solid dieless forming technology in the field of ceramics was relatively late. Typical ceramic solid dieless forming processes include melt precipitation forming technology, inkjet printing forming technology, 3D printing forming technology, layered solid forming technology, and 3D lithography forming technology.

(1) Fused deposition modeling (abbreviated as FDC) Fused deposition modeling technology is developed from FDM technology, which was successfully developed and commercialized by Stratasys.

(2) Ink jet printing (uP) technology is the process of preparing ceramic powder and various organic compounds to form ceramic ink, which is then printed onto a molding surface by a printer for molding.

(3) 3D printing and forming technology (3DP) mainly includes

Fa. The forming process of 3D printing is similar to selecting laser sintering (SLS). Just turn the laser in SLS into an inkjet printer to spray the binder.

(4) Layered object manufacturing (LOM) is a technology developed and commercialized by Helisys in the United States.

(5) Stereolithography (SL) technology was first patented by Charles Hull in 1984 and later commercialized by 3D Systems. Initially, this molding technology was mainly applied to the molding of polymers, and the research on using this method for ceramic molding is still in its early stages.

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