Influence of Alumina Grade on Sintering Properties and Possible Application in Binder Jetting Additive Technology

Abstract

Alumina is one of the most popular ceramic materials widely used in both tooling and construction applications due to its low production cost, and high properties. However, the final properties of the product depend not only on the purity of the powder, but also, e.g., on its particle size, specific surface area, and the production technology used. These parameters are particularly important in the case of choosing additive techniques for the production of details. Therefore, the article presents the results of comparing five grades of Al2O3 ceramic powder. Their specific surface area (via Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) and Barrett–Joyner–Halenda (BJH) methods), particle size distribution, and phase composition by X-ray diffraction (XRD) were determined. Moreover, the surface morphology was characterized by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique. The discrepancy between generally available data and the results obtained from measurements has been indicated. Moreover, the method of spark plasma sintering (SPS), equipped with the registration system of the position of the pressing punch during the process, was used to determine the sinterability curves of each of the tested grades of Al2O3 powder. Based on the obtained results, a significant influence of the specific surface area, particle size, and the width of their distribution at the beginning of the Al2O3 powder sintering process was confirmed. Furthermore, the possibility of using the analyzed variants of powders for binder jetting technology was assessed. The dependence of the particle size of the powder used on the quality of the printed parts was demonstrated. The procedure presented in this paper, which involves analyzing the properties of alumina varieties, was used to optimize the Al2O3 powder material for binder jetting printing. The selection of the best powder in terms of technological properties and good sinterability makes it possible to reduce the number of 3D printing processes, which makes it more economical and less time-consuming.

Processing, Microstructure, and Performance of Robocast Clay-Based Ceramics Incorporating Hollow Alumina Microspheres

“…Various 3D printing techniques have been implemented in the construction of complex ceramic structures, such as selective laser melting/sintering (SLM/SLS) [7], binder jetting [8], robocasting or direct ink writing (DIW) [9][10][11], the fused deposition modeling of ceramics (FDM/FDC) [12], ink-jetting [13], stereolithography (SLA), and digital light processing (DLP) [14]. Among these techniques, classic FDM and DIW are extrusion printing methods preferred for fabrication due to their convenience.…”

Development of Photo-Polymerization-Type 3D Printer for High-Viscosity Ceramic Resin Using CNN-Based Surface Defect Detection

“…Various methods such as binder jetting (BJ) and material extrusion (ME) can be utilized to fabricate ceramic structures using 3D printing methods, but among them, the ceramic structure using the photo-polymerization (PP) method shows surface finish and dimensional accuracy comparable to injection-based powder injection molding (PIM) parts, so a lot of research has been conducted recently [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. The ceramics most commonly used for PP-type printing are white oxides such as silica (SiO 2 ), alumina (Al 2 O 3 ), and zirconia (ZrO 2 ), which have a high light reflectance or refractive index, making it easy to increase the depth of light penetration [ 13 ].…”

Effect of the Particle Size Distribution of Irregular Al Powder on Properties of Parts for Electronics Fabricated by Binder Jetting

“…BJ technology allows parts to be built up to 10 times faster than other AM methods. The advantage of this 3D printing technique is its high compatibility with a large number of powder materials, such as metals [43], ceramics [44], polymers [45], and biomaterials [46]. However, in the literature, only limited information can be found on the use of pure aluminum powders in Binder Jetting technology.…”