Curing characteristics of ceramic stereolithography for an aqueous-based silica suspension

The purpose of this paper is to develop the relationships between ceramic stereolithography (SL) process parameters and curing characteristics of a ceramic suspension. A recently developed photocurable aqueous-based silica suspension with high solid loading (50 vol%) was employed to run small batch experiments. Basic structural building units including single line and layer parts were fabricated, based on a new building scheme to establish the predictive equations with the ceramic SL process parameters. The curing profiles of this silica suspension were also observed and analysed. The photosensitive parameters were determined. Some comparisons were made with conventional resin. The influence of the scattering effect was discussed. With the adequate process parameters chosen, the cured layers could achieve a sufficient depth (higher than 200 mm) and the ceramic green parts obtained could possess appropriate adhesions between adjacent cured lines and layers. Finally, using these parameters, several of the structural and functional ceramic components were built and demonstrated; the dimensional resolution reached was about 0.1mm.