Ian gibson inquired:
"Just recently I have had a few enquiries regarding ceramics, in particular
structural ceramics for the electronics industry.
I know that ceramics has been a hot (cool?) topic in the RP research
community for quite a while now. I am also aware of the use of ceramics to
make casting shells. Can anyone tell me whether there has been any
commercial success recently? Someone told me they heard about a process
called CerLOM for instance. Can anyone tell me more?"
The University of Dayton, together with Helisys and several other
industries, is working to extend the LOM process to ceramics (SiC, AlN and
other materials). The material is delivered in sheet form, either as a
powder held together with binder, a combination of powder with chopped
fibers and binder, or continuous fiber. (Development of the material is a
major part of the program.) The ceramic sheets are comparable to the
traditional paper in thickness (0.004" - 0.015") so the parts can be
fabricated in the traditional LOM fashion. There are two major
modifications that are being addressed. It is desirable to orient the
fibers for preferential directional properties so a rotating delivery stage
is being considered. Also, the continuous fiber materials cannot be cut
using a cw CO2 laser. Success has been achieved using a copper vapor laser.
Another big effort is focused on the burnout of the binder and then
infiltration for full densification so that the parts can be made near-net
shape. Many of the early results were presented at the 1996 SFF Conference
at the University of Texas at Austin. More extensive results will be shown
at the International Conference on Rapid Prototyping in San Francisco in
1997. Recent results are posted at the University's RP web site.
(http://www.udri.udayton.edu/local.htm for conference information and
http://www.udri.udayton.edu/mat_eng/rpdl.htm for the RP activities.)
Allan Lightman
University of Dayton Research Institute
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