The influence of ingredients of silica suspensions and laser exposure on UV curing behavior of aqueous ceramic suspensions in stereolithography

This paper focused on the influence of ingredients of silica suspensions and laser exposure on curing behavior of the highly concentrated aqueous silica suspensions. As a basic building unit, single cured lines were regarded as research objects to characterize the curing behavior of aqueous ceramic suspensions. The cured width and depth were characteristic parameters of single cured lines and measured with a digital optical microscope. The relationships between two characteristic parameters and ingredients of highly concentrated aqueous ceramic suspensions and laser exposure were investigated. The cured depth and width of single cured lines increased with the ceramic mean diameter and monomer concentrations. The cured width of single cured lines decreased with the solid content, but the cured depth increased with the solid content for silica suspensions. The cured depth and width of the single cured line all decreased with the laser scanning speed. The experimental results show that the ingredients of ceramic suspensions and laser exposure all have great influence on curing behavior of the highly concentrated silica suspensions, which indicates that the formula is an intrinsic factor on the curing behavior of ceramic suspensions and laser exposure is an exterior factor.