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M. Pfaffinger, P. Dorfinger, J. Stampfl:
"Stereolithographic Manufacturing of Ceramics and Metals";
Report for Metal Additive Manufacturing Conference, Vienna; 2014; 4 pages.

The advantages of additive manufacturing like the resource-saving processing of highly complex near net-shaped materials disclose new possibilities in the production technology. At the Vienna University of Technology a new kind of 3D-printers, named Blueprinters were developed. With this machines, based on the stereolithography technique, the production of three-dimensional structures, which excel in high precision and surface quality, is possible. In this photopolymerization-based process a variety of different ceramic and metal powders can be used. For ceramic materials the applications range from technical applications (i.e. alumina, zirconia) on to medical applications (i.e. bioactive glass, tricalcium phosphate). By this type of production technique partially improved material properties were achieved compared to conventional manufacturing processes. Regarding metal powders austenitic stainless steel was used. While the 3D-printing of metal filled slurries was successful, the thermal processing of the components was found to be difficult.

Additive Manufacturing; Ceramic; Photopolymerization; Digital Light Processing