(LCM will soon be available as a standalone technology in the KNMFi proposal system. Until then, please use the 3DP technology to submit proposals.)

Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM) is a method for rapid prototyping with ceramic materials. A UV-curable resin or slurry, containing ceramic particles, is polymerized layer by layer into the desired geometry. The printed parts are then cleaned with special cleaning fluids and thermally postprocessed. This last step consists of debinding, in which the polymer is burned off, and sintering, in which a dense ceramic part is obtained. The principle of this method allows the fabrication of complex geometries, which is hard to achieve with other methods when working with ceramic materials.

Equipment

• CeraFab S25 from Lithoz GmbH

Features

• Printing resolution: 25 um (x/y-axis), 10 to 100 um (z-axis)
• Printing volume: 64 x 40 x 320 mm

Materials

• Aluminium oxide (Al2O3)
• Yttrium-stabilized zirconium oxide (ZrO2)
• Hydroxylapatit (medical grade possible after prior agreement)
• Tricalcium phosphate (medical grade possible after prior agreement)

Limitations/constraints

• Cavities must have at least an inlet, so that remaining slurry can come out during cleaning
• Cavities are possible depending on the aspect ratio. At high aspect ratios, cleaning of the cavities may not be successful
• Realizable wall thickness depends on the design and geometry stability
• Depending on the design size and needed resolution, the printing time might be very long

Data

• STL-format
• Use correct units in CAD model for exporting to STL file