Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland have produced micrographs of layer-by-layer 3D printing of a ceramic for the first time. The tomography images show the process inside, helping to improve the promising technology.
In 3D printing, a workpiece is built up layer by layer from powder or liquid. Metals and plastics are often printed using the laser powder bed fusion process. In this process, a laser dot solidifies the powder of each layer.
Printing ceramics is more challenging, according to PSI researchers. To study the process, the scientists rotated a ceramic sample during the printing process and recorded this using fast X-ray microscopy.
To prevent it from drifting apart due to centrifugal force, the researchers used a magnetic powder. Despite 50 revolutions per second, 100 3D images per second were thus obtained.
According to the scientists, the melt zone was visible in 3D for the first time. Depending on the laser power, it behaved differently than expected. In addition, the researchers observed the pore and void spaces during cooling.
The results should help further develop 3D printing of ceramics. According to the PSI researchers, the technology has great potential for producing complex ceramic components. Further experiments with higher resolution are planned, they said.
The results were published in Communications Materials in the paper “Operando tomographic microscopy during laser-based powder bed fusion” (DOI: 10.1038/s43246-023-00401-3). The authors are: M. Makowska, F. Verga, S. Pfeiffer, F. Marone, C. Chang, C. Schlepütz, K. Florio, K. Wegener, T. Graule, and S. Van Petegem.
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