Additive Manufacturing of Carbides and their composites

碳化物以其机械强度、硬度和热稳定性而闻名。工业对用于航空航天、交通运输和其他应用的碳化硅（SiC）和碳化硼（B4C）的小而复杂的部件越来越感兴趣。然而，传统的成型工艺需要昂贵的模具，并且难以生产这些复杂的几何形状。增材制造（AM）提供了一个很有前途的替代方案，然而，由于碳化物的高熔点和光学特性，它与碳化物斗争。该项目的总体目标是生产碳化硅、碳化硼及其复合材料的小、密、复杂部件。首先研究的三种技术是机器人辅助沉积（或机器人铸造），二极管区域熔化（DAM）和数字光处理（DLP）。机器铸造是一种使用假塑料油墨的连续挤出技术。该技术将用于研究反应键合SiC以及SiC基体与SiC纤维。另一方面，DAM通过激光吸收致密化粉末床，并且正在探索还原氧化石墨烯作为潜在的添加剂来增加陶瓷粉末的吸收。最后，DLP是一种基于掩模的立体光刻衍生产品。将开发光敏悬浮液，并测试打印部件的机械性能，以尝试开发成功的打印工艺。

TheCarbides are renowned for their mechanical strength, hardness and thermal stability. There is increasing industrial interest for small, complex parts of silicon carbide (SiC) and boron carbide (B4C) for aerospace, transportation and other applications. However, traditional forming processes require expensive moulds and struggle to produce these complex geometries. Additive manufacturing (AM) offers a promising alternative however, it struggles with carbides due to their high melting points and their optical properties. The overall aim of the project is to produce small, dense, complex parts of silicon carbide, boron carbide and their composites. To begin with the three techniques being investigated are robotic assisted deposition (or robocasting), diode area melting (DAM) and digital light processing (DLP). Robocasting is a continuous extrusion technique using pseudoplastic inks. The technique will be used to investigate reaction bonded SiC as well as SiC matrices with SiC fibres. On the other hand, DAM densifies a powder bed through laser absorption and reduced graphene oxide is being explored as a potential additive to increase the absorption of ceramic powders. Finally, DLP is a mask-based derivative of stereolithography. Photosensitive suspensions will be developed, and the mechanical properties of printed parts will be tested to try to develop a successful printing process.