The influence of topology on DLP 3D printing, debinding and sintering of ceramic periodic architectures designed to replace bulky components

Nowadays complex ceramic components are produced with high precision by Stereolithography. This method shows limitations when producing ceramic components having a wall thickness greater than approx. 10 ​mm. This is due to the amount of organic binder in the green bodies that, evacuating from the inner microstructure during the thermal debinding, brings to the formation of defects such as cracks and delaminations. To overcome this issue, the so-called “design for AM” approach can be exploited. In this work we replaced the inner body with a less voluminous porous architecture having a larger surface through which the decomposed binder can evacuate. Tubes filled with periodic architectures were 3D-printed using an Alumina-based photosensitive slurry. Several topology combinations were tested, by varying both the cell type and the struts diameter. The quality of the produced samples was analyzed through morphological inspections, while the mechanical properties (i.e. stresses and deformations) were assessed via FEM simulations.