https://pure.hw.ac.uk/ws/files/10766137/Melchels2010_Biomaterials_31_24_6121.pdf

A review on stereolithography and its applications in biomedical engineering

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has been researched and developed for more than 20 years. Rather than removing materials, AM processes make three-dimensional parts directly from CAD models by adding materials layer by layer, offering the beneficial ability to build parts with geometric and material complexities that could not be produced by subtractive manufacturing processes. Through intensive research over the past two decades, significant progress has been made in the development and commercialization of new and innovative AM processes, as well as numerous practical applications in aerospace, automotive, biomedical, energy and other fields. This paper reviews the main processes, materials and applications of the current AM technology and presents future research needs for this technology.

Additive manufacturing: technology, applications and research needs

Progress in Additive Manufacturing and Rapid Prototyping

Along with extensive research on the three-dimensional (3D) printing of polymers and metals, 3D printing of ceramics is now the latest trend to come under the spotlight. The ability to fabricate ceramic components of arbitrarily complex shapes has been extremely challenging without 3D printing. This review focuses on the latest advances in the 3D printing of ceramics and presents the historical origins and evolution of each related technique. The main technical aspects, including feedstock properties, process control, post-treatments and energy source–material interactions, are also discussed. The technical challenges and advice about how to address these are presented. Comparisons are made between the techniques to facilitate the selection of the best ones in practical use. In addition, representative applications of the 3D printing of various types of ceramics are surveyed. Future directions are pointed out on the advancement on materials and forming mechanism for the fabrication of high-performance ceramic components.

3D printing of ceramics: A review

New microproducts need the utilization of a diversity of materials and have complicated three-dimensional (3D) microstructures with high aspect ratios. To date, many micromanufacturing processes have been developed but specific class of such processes are applicable for fabrication of functional and true 3D microcomponents/assemblies. The aptitude to process a broad range of materials and the ability to fabricate functional and geometrically complicated 3D microstructures provides the additive manufacturing (AM) processes some profits over traditional methods, such as lithography-based or micromachining approaches investigated widely in the past. In this paper, 3D micro-AM processes have been classified into three main groups, including scalable micro-AM systems, 3D direct writing, and hybrid processes, and the key processes have been reviewed comprehensively. Principle and recent progress of each 3D micro-AM process has been described, and the advantages and disadvantages of each process have been presented.

/pdf/a-review-on-3d-micro-additive-manufacturing-technologies-1kbpeb2xb5.pdf

A review on 3D micro-additive manufacturing technologies

Ceramic three dimensional parts have been fabricated by a Stereolithography (SL) process using a ceramic slurry containing alumina powder, UV curable monomer, diluent, photoinitiator and dispersant, subsequent removal of organic components and sintering. The SL process consists of fabricating parts with complex shapes layer by layer by laser polymerization of a ceramic/resin mixture. The effects of each component on the rheology of the ceramic suspension were investigated. Both, the addition of dispersant and diluent to the curable monomer and the increase in temperature decrease the viscosity down to suitable values for tape casting of the layers and for SL. The homogeneous and stable high ceramic concentration suspensions (53 vol%) exhibited a shear thinning behavior, which is favorable for casting the layers. Adequate cured depth (above 200 μm) and width were obtained even at high scanning speeds with an argon ionized laser.

Ceramic suspensions suitable for stereolithography

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01303879/document

Porous Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles for enhanced solar and visible light photocatalysis

A new laser microstereophotolithography process has been developed in our laboratory to manufacture three-dimensional parts with a high accuracy. As usual in laser stereophotolithography or laser microstereophotolithography, the part is manufactured layer by layer by a light-induced space-resolved polymerization. Until now, in all the already existing microstereophotolithography devices a layer is manufactured vector by vector, by moving the part beneath the initiating light source which remains motionless. We developed a simpler and easier process, in which we can manufacture an entire layer by irradiating its whole surface only once: we used a liquid crystal display as a dynamic generator of masks. In the device we set up, we need only one mobile element, the z translator, all the others are fixed. We manufactured several different 3D microparts, in particular a piece of bevel microgearing with helicoidal cogs, the volume of which is less than half a cubic millimetre.

Microstereophotolithography using a liquid crystal display as dynamic mask-generator

Ceramic three‐dimensional parts can be produced by a stereolithography (SL) process using a ceramic suspension containing alumina powder, UV curable monomer, diluent, photoinitiator and dispersant. The monomer reacts to UV radiation (argon ionized laser) and is transformed into a solid polymer which is then removed by thermal treatment (debinding). Subsequent sintering of green parts leads to dense ceramic parts. The effect of each component on the rheology of the alumina suspensions has been studied first. Both the addition of dispersant and diluent and the increase in temperature allow a significant decrease of the viscosity of the suspensions. The highly loaded (more than 55 vol. per cent), homogeneous and stable suspensions have a shear thinning behaviour which is favourable for casting the layers. Adequate cured depth (above 200μm) and satisfactory transversal resolution have been obtained and these allow the production of ceramic parts, which demonstrates the feasibility of the process. Sintering at 1,580°C leads to dense ceramic parts with homogeneous microstructure. The process still needs to be optimized to improve even more the mechanical properties.

Stereolithography for the fabrication of ceramic three‐ dimensional parts

Cu-doped ZnS quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized in aqueous solution using 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) as stabilizer. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results indicate that the Cu:ZnS nanocrystals distribute uniformly and the size is ca. 2.9 ± 0.5 nm. These nanocrystals were successfully associated to anatase TiO2 nanoparticles to yield TiO2/Cu:ZnS photocatalysts. Morphological and optical properties of TiO2/Cu:ZnS nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, TEM, and UV–vis and fluorescence spectroscopies. Photocatalytic activities of TiO2/Cu:ZnS nanocomposites were evaluated by the oxidation of salicylic acid aqueous solutions under UV light irradiation. Enhanced performances compared either to pure TiO2 nanoparticles or to undoped TiO2/ZnS nanocomposites were observed. Effects of the mass ratio of the TiO2 and Cu:ZnS and of the pH of the aqueous solution containing salicylic acid on the photocatalytic activities of TiO2 nanoparticles sensitized with Cu:ZnS QDs were also investigated.

Serge Corbel

Papers

Ceramic suspensions suitable for stereolithography

Porous Mn-doped ZnO nanoparticles for enhanced solar and visible light photocatalysis

Microstereophotolithography using a liquid crystal display as dynamic mask-generator

Stereolithography for the fabrication of ceramic three‐ dimensional parts

Preparation of Cu-doped ZnS QDs/TiO2 nanocomposites with high photocatalytic activity