Efficient cleaning of ceramic green bodies with complex architectures fabricated by stereolithography-based additive manufacturing via high viscoelastic paste

Complete removal of uncured ceramic paste from the surface of a green body with complex profiles fabricated by stereolithography-based additive manufacturing is critical to the ultimate achievement of the designed 3D part with high definition and ideal surface roughness. The present work provided a novel cleaning strategy for the design of cleaning agents on the basis of competitive absorption of viscosity-reducing dispersants on the surface of ceramic particles within viscoelastic pastes. In combination with cleaning agent design and auxiliary cleaning equipment, distinct dispersants were selected to enhance the flowability of the uncured paste during the ultrasonic cleaning and spraying processes. The morphology and reconstruction characteristics of specific structures illustrated the advantages and disadvantages of the two cleaning methods. The cleaning effect for small holes by ultrasonic cleaning was superior, but the structural damage of the green body was more serious. After spray cleaning, the surface roughness was lower with less damage to the green body, and there was less residual paste after cleaning. The results demonstrated that the selection of a cleaning strategy was beneficial to posttreatment of stereolithography-fabricated ceramic green bodies, achieving subsequent superior surface quality and accuracy of the internal feature size.