QUALITY IMPROVEMENT OF CERAMIC PARTS FORMEDICAL APPLICATIONS THROUGHOPTIMIZATION OF THE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING ANDPOST-PROCESSING PROCESSES

Sammanfattning: Additive Manufacturing (AM) is beneficial for medical applications in which tissues must be replaced because AM enables the fabrication of highly complex three-dimensional structures. In this study the AM and the post-processing steps of additive manufactured ceramic parts of a specific material for tissue replacement were examined in order to optimize the parts’ quality. Visual inspection and microscopic techniques, weighing, dimensional measurements, and flexural bending tests were used for the result evaluation. Different cleaning agents and methods were tested with the result that the current cleaning agent and method had the best cleaning performance. With changed orientation on the building platform, changed supports during the AM and defined positions in the furnace during sintering, the parts’  quality was clearly improved, i.e. the parts had no longer countless cracks, were not warped anymore and had a smooth surface. Post-curing with UV light was found to have a detrimental impact on the parts’ quality. Tests with different sintering temperatures showed, that the sintering temperature influences the appearance, the degree of shrinkage, the degree of fusion, and the flexural strength of the parts. Hence, depending on the intended application the  sintering parameters must be specified for each part.