Selective Laser Flash Sintering of Ceramics

Traditional additive manufacturing (AM) of ceramic parts is performed using indirect processes that require a polymeric binder to fuse ceramic powder particles layer by layer. Post processing consists of pyrolysis of the polymeric binder before sintering the parts to full density. The pyrolysis step can be extremely slow and and challenging for the production of large ceramic parts.  Direct AM of ceramic parts without polymer binder has been attempted but is challenging because of the slow sintering kinetics, high melting temperatures, high Young’s modulus and poor fracture toughnesses of ceramics that leads to cracking.

Selective laser flash sintering (SLFS)  is a recently invented process that utilizes a scanning laser combined with an electric field that lower the required temperatures and speeds the sintering kinetics significantly so that direct laser sintering may be possible.  We are conducting research to understand the mechanisms that control SLFS.   

This work is or has been support supported by the Office of Naval Research, the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining through a grant from the Air Force  Research Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory.