Freeform Fabrication of Ti3SiC2 Structures

This paper introduces a three-stage process to fabricate highly dense Ti3SiC2 structures. The properties of Ti3SiC2 material, the synthesis of the ceramic powder, the procedure involved in the 3-stage fabrication process and the preliminary results on fabricating fully dense Ti3SiC2 structures are presented. The characterization and microstructure evaluation of the mechanical, morphological and structural properties covering the compressive strength, Vickers micro hardness, damage tolerance, thermal shock, shrinkage and porosity of Ti3SiC2 structures printed using the 3-stage process are presented.