Energy-Reduced Fabrication of Light-Frame Ceramic Honeycombs by Replication of Additive Manufactured Templates.
David KöllnerSebastian NiedermeyerMiklos VermesSwantje SimonKen-Ichi KakimotoTobias FeyPublished in: Materials (Basel, Switzerland) (2023)
Ceramic components require very high energy consumption due to synthesis, shaping, and thermal treatment. However, this study suggests that combining the sol-gel process, replica technology, and stereolithography has the potential to produce highly complex geometries with energy savings in each process step. We fabricated light-frame honeycombs of Al 2 O 3 , Ba 0.85 Ca 0.15 Zr 0.1 Ti 0.9 O 3 (BCZT), and BaTiO 3 (BT) using 3D-printed templates with varying structural angles between -30° and 30° and investigated their mechanical and piezoelectric properties. The Al 2 O 3 honeycombs showed a maximum strength of approximately 6 MPa, while the BCZT and BaTiO 3 honeycombs achieved a d 33 above 180 pC/N. Additionally, the BCZT powder was prepared via a sol-gel process, and the impact of the calcination temperature on phase purity was analyzed. The results suggest that there is a large energy-saving potential for the synthesis of BCZT powder. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the fabrication of complex ceramic structures with improved energy efficiency and enhancement of performance.