First printing of continuous fibers into ceramics |
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| Authors: | Hui Mei Yuekai Yan Liping Feng Konstantinos G. Dassios Hui Zhang Laifei Cheng |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Science and Technology on Thermostructural Composite Materials Laboratory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China;2. State Key Lab of Solidification Processing, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, China;3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece |
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| Abstract: | This article reports a novel method for three-dimensional (3D) printing of continuous fibers into ceramics to improve the mechanical properties of printed ceramics, which is difficult in other 3D printing technologies. The ceramics were derived by pyrolysis of thermoplastic ceramic precursor feedstocks, which were prepared by two methods. One is homogeneously mixing thermoplastic resins and ceramic precursors. The feedstocks prepared by this method exhibit good thermoplastic properties and can be extruded into filaments. Ceramics were obtained by heating the feedstocks to 1100°C in argon atmosphere. The ceramics were amorphous and remained stable during 1100-1300°C; at 1400°C they decomposed into β–SiC with simultaneous volatile gas generation. Above 1400°C, their quality decreased significantly due to cracking of ceramic skeletons. The other method is directly heating, extruding and printing the ceramic precursor. The precursors showed good printability and complex ceramic structures were printed with continuous carbon fibers inside. The continuous carbon fibers improved the flexural strength of pyrolytic ceramics, which is about 7.6 times better than that of the ceramics without fibers. The novel method unravels the potential of 3D printing of continuous fibers into ceramics with complex lightweight structures to improve the strength. |
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