Improving the accuracy of stereolithography 3D printed Al2O3 microcomponents by adding photoabsorber: Fundamentals and experiments

Ceramic microcomponents have a wide range of applications in microfluidic, sensors, etc. Stereolithography 3D printing technology provided a shortcut for the preparation of this small-size and complex component. With the development of device miniaturization, the existing stereolithography forms cannot meet the demand. To prepare smaller components, it is necessary to decrease the slice thickness ( C s $C_s$ ). But during the stereolithography 3D printing, ceramic is usually easy to over-cure, leading to the key issue in the stereolithography of ceramic microcomponents: the mismatching between the curing thickness ( C p $C_p$ ) and the slice thickness ( C s $C_s$ ). To solve the problem above, this paper started from the stereolithography mechanism of the ceramic/resin slurry and adjusted the matching relationship between C p $C_p$ and C s $C_s$ theoretically by adding a photoabsorber. Then, from the experiments, the influence of different content of photoabsorber (carbon black) on curing thickness, printing accuracy, and sintering accuracy, were studied. Al 2 O 3 ceramic microcomponents that met the design requirements were thus prepared. These results would help in the development of stereolithography 3D printing of ceramic microcomponents.