Lithography-based additive manufacturing of short fiber reinforced alumina

Abstract

There are various reasons why patients suffering from health issues need a bone replacement. One approach providing these replacements to patients, who are in need of one, is by personalized implants. Using additive manufacturing to print these implants has the advantage of processing individual and complex parts directly from a CAD model. One attractive material for bone replacements is alumina. It is one of the most studied bioceramics, which can be used for articulating components in hip prosthesis and is a promising material for dental implants. It is characterized by excellent physical and chemical properties like high abrasion- and excellent corrosion resistance compared to metallic alloys. Nevertheless, structural ceramics like alumina have one disadvantage. They show a brittle behavior. Using fiber reinforcements their fracture toughness can be increased, leading to favorable mechanical properties for applications in biomedical engineering. This work aims to present the advancements of processing of fiber reinforced alumina by lithography-based ceramic manufacturing (LCM). The feasibility of incorporating short fibers into the ceramic slurry to create ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) is shown. Processing short fiber CMCs using LCM is a three-step process. First, the slurry has to be prepared. This is a very challenging step as the fibers tend to agglomerate. Second, green bodies are generated using the energy of light. Third, the green bodies are thermally post processed to gain a densified CMCs object, whose mechanical properties are measured.