Strategic Manufacturing Initiative: Solid Freeform Fabrication: Ceramics

本研究的目的是发展用固体粉末和气体前驱体生产陶瓷结构件的工程技术基础。如果成功，这项技术有潜力在设计可视化、原型制作和按需零件方面产生数量级的生产力提高，并通过打破模型制作/原型制作瓶颈，大大缩短工程系统的开发周期。该技术并不直接与大批量生产的传统工艺竞争，而是在低产量的情况下竞争，例如生产原型零件、设计可视化模型、铸造模式和按需零件。固体自由形状制造的可行性已经通过实验证明了使用选择性激光烧结在聚合物材料上的可行性，这是我们在该领域研究中开发的一种工艺。

The objective of this research is to develop the engineering technology base to produce structural parts in ceramics from both solid powders and gas precursors. If successful, this technology has the potential to produce order-of-magnitude productivity improvements in design visualization, prototyping, and parts-on- demand and to dramatically shorten development cycle times for engineering systems by breaking the modelmaking/prototyping bottleneck. This technology does not directly compete with conventional processes for large production numbers, but competes in low production number situations such as the production of prototype parts, design visualization models, casting patterns, and parts on demand. The feasibility of Solid Freeform Fabrication has been experimentally demonstrated using Selective Laser Sintering on polymeric materials, a process developed during our research in this area.