Silicon carbide is the 2nd hardest material known to man. This particular property of silicon carbide was not mentioned in the article. I wonder if it applies...A method to 3D print structurally sound ceramic as well as heat resistant varieties was thought impossible – until now.
Silicon oxycarbide, a ceramic, was successfully created by Californian researchers and was found to be able to withstand temperatures above 1700°C
Dr Tobias Schaedler, program manager at HRL Laboratories in the US, said: “With our new 3D printing process we can take full advantage of the many desirable properties of this silicon oxycarbide ceramic, including high hardness, strength and temperature capability as well as resistance to abrasion and corrosion.”
Ceramics have the ability to withstand large amounts of heat and pressure without deforming and are also highly resistant to chemicals, which is why they are used for a variety of uses across various industries.
Current issues with 3D printing ceramics arise from the fact they cannot be machined or cast easily. Zac Eckel and Dr Chaoyin Zhou, also from HRL Laboratories, have invented a resin that can be 3D printed, before being fired in a kiln. The resin is a composition of binding glue and ceramic particles. The resulting product is claimed to be ten times as strong as similar materials.
The 3D printer prints 100μ thick layers of the resin, which is then hardened with ultraviolet light to fuse monomers into polymers. The parts are kiln fired in temperatures up to 1000°C in argon gas. “It’s actually a pretty simple, straightforward idea,” said Eckel.
The team printed silicon carbide ceramics – used in high performance car disc brakes and bulletproof vests – using this method. This had never been achieved before with 3D printing. They believe different ceramics could be produced by adjusting the composition of the ceramic-plastic resin.
It is claimed both the process and material could be used in various ways, such as large components in jet engines and hypersonic vehicles to intricate parts in microelectromechanical systems.
zero porosity high precision silicon carbide stereo lithography
zero porosity high precision silicon carbide stereo lithography
http://www.labnews.co.uk/news/3d-printe ... 5-01-2016/
Re: zero porosity high precision silicon carbide stereo lithography
Oops.. It is.. Other articles didn't. But they didn't say just how hard it is.
Re: zero porosity high precision silicon carbide stereo lithography
I find this interesting from the potential future aspect of 3D printing silicon carbide based ICs.
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
Re: zero porosity high precision silicon carbide stereo lithography
I'm not current in the state of the art of magnets but this article from 2014 says that superconducting permanent magnets have reached 17.6 teslas
http://www.popsci.com/article/technolog ... -field-yet
The article mentions that the brittle composition of the magnets makes it difficult to exceed 17.6 or so teslas because they tend to crumble.
The cool thing about this litho process is that it can produce parts that have interlocking parts or interior voids. Many of the parts they demo for these articles look like models of crystiline matrices.
Would there be any benefit to infiltrating a high hardness 3D matrix-like the kind produced by the stereo litho machine with a permanent magnet filler? Silicon carbide might be able to tolerate being sintered twice. The end result is like a magnetic composite. The mechanically weak magnetic parts are strengthened by the silicon carbide matrix so they don't blow apart when super high fields are imparted to it.
30 teslas
http://www.popsci.com/article/technolog ... -field-yet
The article mentions that the brittle composition of the magnets makes it difficult to exceed 17.6 or so teslas because they tend to crumble.
The cool thing about this litho process is that it can produce parts that have interlocking parts or interior voids. Many of the parts they demo for these articles look like models of crystiline matrices.
Would there be any benefit to infiltrating a high hardness 3D matrix-like the kind produced by the stereo litho machine with a permanent magnet filler? Silicon carbide might be able to tolerate being sintered twice. The end result is like a magnetic composite. The mechanically weak magnetic parts are strengthened by the silicon carbide matrix so they don't blow apart when super high fields are imparted to it.
30 teslas