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). 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) and the slice thickness (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 and 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. Al₂O₃ ceramic microcomponents that met the design requirements were thus prepared. These results would help in the development of stereolithography 3D printing of ceramic microcomponents.