Electron beam sintering of ceramics for additive manufacturing

• Published in: Vacuum Vol. 169; p. 108933
• Main Authors: Klimov, A.S., Bakeev, I.Yu, Dvilis, E.S., Oks, E.M., Zenin, A.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2019
• ISSN: 0042-207X; 1879-2715
• DOI: 10.1016/j.vacuum.2019.108933

We describe the results of electron-beam layer-by-layer sintering of a mixture of alumina powder and talc. An electron beam with high power density, generated by a forevacuum-pressure, plasma-cathode electron source, was used as heat source. A specific feature of the source is the option to generate an electron beam at pressure range 5–20 Pa. In this pressure range, a high density beam-plasma is formed in the electron beam transport region. Positive ions from this plasma neutralize the negative charge that the beam's electrons deposit to the surface of the target. Using an electron beam, the alumina/talc powder mixture was heated and sintering occurred at a temperature of 1350 °C. An additional layer of powder was subsequently poured onto the previous one and sintered in the same way. We formed an electron-beam-sintered 7-layer structure. We show that the porosity of the sintered layers depends on the layer number, with the least porous layers located in the upper part of the sample.
•Layer-by-layer electron-beam irradiation of a mixture of ceramic powders allows sintering multilayer samples.•The optimum temperature for heating the powder mixture is 1400 °C.•The porosity of the sintered layers depends on the layer number.•The least porous layers are formed in the upper part of the sample.