In-Process UV-Curing of Pasty Ceramic Composite

Within recent years,a wide range of additive manufacturing processes have been developed. While powder bed based fusion processes like selective laser melting and melting processes like fused layer modelling are being increasingly used in industrial applications, prototyping other processes are in the initial stage. This paper develops a new method for an extrusion-based process of pasty UV-curing ceramic composite material. The method proposes an approach to continuously cure the material while it is deployed to reduce process time and generate complete cured parts. A milling machine has been modified with a syringe and a UV-light source to accommodate the process. Experimental studies have been carried out to examine the influence of the process parameters on the curing process. As a result, a parameter set has been found to make fully dense and cured ceramic composite parts.