| About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
MS&T24: Materials Science & Technology
|
| Symposium
|
Additive Manufacturing of Ceramic-based Materials: Process Development, Materials, Process Optimization and Applications
|
| Presentation Title |
Rapid Volumetric Microwave Curing of Silicon Nitride Ceramic Binder Mixtures |
| Author(s) |
Saptarshi Mukherjee, Ethan Rosenberg, Johanna Vandenbrande, Johanna Schwartz, Maxim Shusteff, Joseph W. Tringe, James Kelly |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Saptarshi Mukherjee |
| Abstract Scope |
Advanced manufacturing methods for ceramics rely on a layer-by-layer construction that are time consuming and costly. Recent development of an optical volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM) technology has enabled rapid 3D printing in a singular step. However, optical VAM is limited to transparent photo resins. Here we propose to develop a fast, scalable VAM system for ceramic materials utilizing microwave radiation. The concept relies on developing a high-power microwave antenna array coupled to a beamforming algorithm to superimpose multiple microwave beams and deliver localized energy to arbitrary 3-D volumes. While current stereolithography techniques require large polymer binder volumes (>50 vol.%) that can lead to sub-surface voids after post-processing and long processing times, we discuss microwave sensitive polymer formulations that can be used in low volume fractions (<40 vol.%) to control microwave energy and achieve rapid, focused green body curing. Results from preliminary experiments on Silicon Nitride ceramic mixtures will be presented. |