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Journal of the European Ceramic Society 35 (2015) 981987

Slurry-based additive manufacturing of ceramic parts by selective laser

burn-out
Hwa-Hsing Tang a,1 , Hsiao-Chuan Yen b,
a

Graduate Institute of Manufacturing Technology, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan
b Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan
Received 27 August 2014; received in revised form 10 October 2014; accepted 15 October 2014
Available online 30 October 2014

Abstract
This study proposes a novel process of slurry-based additive manufacturing of ceramic parts by selective laser burn-out (SLB). The process employs
the slurry layer to replace the sheet material used in the process of laminated object manufacturing (LOM) and computer-aided manufacturing
of laminated engineering materials (CAM-LEM). A part of binder and solution in the fresh slurry layer permeated into the dried green layers to
achieve a good binding strength; then the green part was build with laser irradiation to burn out binder. Two scanning modes were used; the outline
scanning traced out the outline of the predefined part slice geometry, and cutting scanning facilitated removal of excess material. Consequently, the
new process benefits the fabrication of the large parts as LOM and CAM-LEM possessing. Many accessory facilities used in LOM and CAM-LEM
are not required. The feasibility of the new process is verified through the fabrication of the alumina parts.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Ceramic; Selective laser burn-out; Alumina

1. Introduction
The material used in the additive manufacturing (AM) process can be divided to three categories. One is the powder,
another is the slurry, and the other is the sheet material. Selective
laser sintering (SLS) and three-dimensional printing (3DP) are
well known AM processes using powder. A variety of ceramic
powder has been used to fabricate ceramic components with
the process of SLS.1,2 The feasibility of fabricating ceramic
parts with 3DP has been explored in industrial and biomedical
applications.36 Because appreciable densities can be achieved
by the use of ceramic slurry, many slurry-based processes have
been reported. Stereolithography (SL) is employed to create
ceramic green bodies with the photocurable ceramic slurry.7,8 A
series of slurry-based technology, which uses aqueous slurry to

Corresponding author at: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National

Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Chung Hsiao East Road, Section 3,
Taipei 10608, Taiwan. Tel.: +886 2 27712171x2086; fax: +886 2 27317191.
E-mail address: hcyen@ntut.edu.tw (H.-C. Yen).
1 Graduate Institute of Manufacturing Technology, National Taipei University
of Technology, No. 1, Chung Hsiao East Road, Section 3, Taipei 10608, Taiwan.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2014.10.019
0955-2219/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

fabricate ceramic components with laser sintering or fusion, has

been studied,915 such as ceramic laser fusion (CLF), ceramic
laser sintering (CLS), and ceramic laser gelling (CLG). The
slurry deposition technology (LSD) combines elements of the
tape casting and slip casting process to build up of the layers and
selectively sinters with laser.16 LSD allows the step-by-step generation of ceramic components without the use of non-ceramic
binders.17 The strategies for an improved microstructure of
laser-sintered bodies fabricated by LSD are introduced.18 One
of the important features of the slurry-based process is the
inherent support for overhanging or undercutting geometry. The
processes using sheet material are laminated object manufacturing (LOM) and computer-aided manufacturing of laminated
engineering materials (CAM-LEM). The LOM involves layerby-layer lamination of sheet material, cuts using a CO2 laser.
The contour scanning mode leads to a better building rate. The
feasibility of fabricating ceramic parts with different ceramic
sheet materials has been reported.1921 The CAM-LEM can
rapidly create high-integrity ceramic components directly from
solid CAD model, and enables production of parts with complex
internal geometries which are difficult to manufacture by the
conventional process.22,23 Except for 3DP, the aforementioned

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processes consist of two main steps, i.e., layer fabricating and

selective laser scanning. In the slurry-based processes, the selective laser scanning refers to the selective irradiation of the layer
by a laser beam scanning, which locally sinters the powder contained in the dried layer according to the predefined part slice
geometry. LOM and CAM-LEM use sheet material to build
the three-dimensional parts. The sheet material must be prefabricated by an accessory apparatus. Laser beam selectively
scans outline of the predefined part slice pattern to cut the sheet
material for separation of the green part and excess material.
Obviously, compared with other processes, LOM and CAMLEM possess the advantage of high build rate. Nevertheless,
easy storage and delivery are the advantages of the processes
using powder or slurry.
In LOM and CAM-LEM, adhesive must be laminated on the
bottom side of the sheet. The adhesive is heated and melted with
a heater roller to stick the fresh layer and the previous layer
together; thus, the green block is built layer by layer. However,
the laminated binder between the sheets leads to the microstructure of the green part being imperfect. The sheet material
in CAM-LEM also can be coated solution to dissolve the binder
during the layer stacking, and then press with a pressing apparatus to tighten the sheets. Nevertheless, not only dissolving the
dried binder is time consuming but also controlling the binding strength is difficult. The binding quality will influence the
micro-structure of the green parts, and relate to the sintering
strength of the sintered parts. Frequently, pressing is applied to
tighten the layers when the part is completed. Such treatment is
unnecessary in the slurry-based processes.
The aim of this study is to propose a new process to succeed
the advantages and eliminate the drawbacks of the slurry-based
and sheet material processes, the new process will employ the
slurry composed of ceramic powder and binder to replace the
sheet material used in LOM and CAM-LEM. A green block
with good binding strength can be achieved without additional
pressing because the binder contained in the fresh slurry layer
permeates into the solid green block underneath the fresh slurry
layer. Not only the prefabrication of raw material is not required
but also laser scanning only traces out the outline of the green
part. No hatch scanning of the part slice pattern is required; thus,
the time-taken of scanning can be shortened dramatically; the
build rate of the 3D green part can be increased. The new process
will benefit the fabrication of the large parts and eliminate the
required accessory apparatuses for the sheet material prefabricating and the green part pressing in LOM and CAM-LEM.

Fig. 1. Schematic of the fresh layer in LOM.

The main difference between the new process and LOM or

CAM-LEM is the type of material. The new process employs
the slurry layer to replaces the sheet material used in LOM and
CAM-LEM. In LOM, the new sheet material bridges the crater
caused by laser cutting as shown in Fig. 1; thus, no craters appear
on the surface of the green block.
A CO2 laser beam produces a crater as shown in Fig. 2(a). In
the slurry-based processes, scanning with high energy density
leads to ablation and creates a linear crater along the track of the
scanning. Fig. 2(b) illustrates a part of slurry of the fresh layer
flows into the crater during the process of casting. After layer
drying, the conspicuous crater is formed on the layer surface
as shown in Fig. 2(c). Such crater is harmful to the interior
construction of the green part, and then the part may not be built.
A method, named selective laser burn-out (SLB), was developed
in the present study to eliminate this phenomenon.
2. The principle of the new process
2.1. Selective laser burn-out
Selective laser burn-out is the process of selectively removing
the specific ingredient in the material from a solid surface by
irradiating it with a laser beam. At low laser flux, the specific
ingredient in the material is heated by the absorbed laser energy
and evaporates, and the structure material still remains. In this
paper, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA-the binder) was evaporated by
laser beam irradiation because of the low evaporation point, and
the alumina powder was remained.

Fig. 2. Schematic of the slurry in the crater caused by ablation.

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983

Fig. 3. Schematic of the ideal structure of the weaken area induced by the selective laser burn-out.

The gas can be found along the scanning track during laser
irradiation the green layer with low energy density. The released
gas should be the vaporized binder other than the ablation of the
ceramic powder. Many connected pores exist in the green layers;
therefore, the gas can easily exhaust through the pores without
damaging the interior structure of the green block.
Scanning with a proper laser energy density can remove most
of the binder along the scanning track, and weaken the binding strength among the powders to form a weaken area. The
remaining ceramic powder in the crater can be the support of
the fresh slurry layer. The space originally occupied with the
binder will be filled up with the fresh slurry during the fresh
slurry casting; thus, no crater will appear on the fresh layer.
The laser scanning track is defined as the linear binder burnout area or the weaken area. Fig. 3 reveals the ideal structure
of the weaken area; t represents the layer thickness, and D
represents the depth of the binder burn-out or the depth of the
weaken area. Fig. 3(a) illustrates that no crater induced by ablation in the weaken area; the binder is removed but the ceramic
powder still remain and be the support of the fresh slurry layer.
Therefore, the binding strength in the weaken area can be much
less than that in the rest of areas. Fig. 3(b) shows a part of binder
and solution in the fresh slurry layer permeates through the pores
into the weaken area. The ceramic powder and remaining binder
and solution still retain in the fresh slurry layer. After drying,
the powder in the fresh dried layer and a part of powder in
the weaken area can be connected with the binder as shown
in Fig. 3(c). No any crater appears on the fresh layer is due
to the support formed with the ceramic powder in the weaken
area.
Different energy densities can be achieved by adjusting the
laser power and scanning speed. By the experiment of binder
burn-out, a variety of the depth of the binder burn-out (depth of
the weaken area) can be achieved. For the specific layer thickness, the required burn-out depth can be obtained through the
suitable scanning parameter combinations.

2.2.1. The outline scanning mode

Fig. 4(c) reveals the outline of a 2D pattern, which is obtained
from the slicing of the 3D CAD model, is traced by an optics
system that is mounted on an XY stage to remove the binder.
Once the outline scanning is done, a border is created around the
pattern. The border is the aforementioned linear binder burn-out
area or the weaken area. The area outside the weaken area is
defined as the reserved area. Furthermore, the reserved area is
discriminated between the green parts and the excess material
by the aforesaid border.
2.2.2. The cutting scanning mode
As shown in Fig. 4(d), laser beam irradiates the excess
material area, layer by layer, in compliance with the specified scanning route; the excess material is then cut to be many
small pieces for easy removal. Fig. 5 reveals the track of cutting

2.2. Laser scanning modes

Fig. 4 (a) is the schematic of the laser scanning modes of
the new process, which is based on the principle of SLB. Two
scanning modes are defined in compliance with the function
of scanning. One is the outline scanning mode as shown in
Fig. 4(c), and the other is the cutting scanning mode as shown in
Fig. 4(d).

Fig. 4. Schematic of the laser scanning modes.

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Table 1
Formation of the slurry A in wt.% for building sacrifice green block.
Ingredient

Function

wt.%

SiO2 powder
Volcanic clay
Silica sol
De-ion water
Defoamer

Structure element
Binder
Binder
Solution
Bubble remover

52.49
3.67
1.58
42.00
0.26

building the solid green block is illustrated in Fig. 7. Fig. 7(a)

shows the fresh slurry layer is casted on the solid green block by
a caster. A part of binder and solution permeates to the previous
green layers as shown in Fig. 7(b). Fig. 7(c) presents the dried
green layer. ts represents the thickness of a single slurry layer;
d represents the permeating depth of the binder and solution;
t represents the thickness of a single dried layer. tb = t + d is
defined as the binding thickness. The powders get closer after
the process of permeating and drying. Thus, the thickness of
the dried layer is smaller than that of the slurry layer, i.e., t < ts .
Theoretically, the idea permeating depth is closed to the thickness of a single layer. Off-line prefabrication of the sacrifice
green block is helpful to shorten the building time of the green
part.
Fig. 5. Schematic of the cutting scanning mode.

3.3. Slurry preparation

scanning on each layer overlaps the previous cutting track completely. However, the excess material in the reserved area can
inherently support the overhangs and other weak areas of the
part during fabrication.
3. Fabrication of ceramic green parts by the new process
3.1. The procedure of the new process
The feasibility of the new process can be verified by fabrication of the green parts. Fig. 6 shows the complete procedure,
which includes (a) slurry preparing, (b) casting, (c) drying, (d)
laser scanning, (e) platform descending, (f) steps repeating for
the specified number of times (from step (b) to step (e)), and (g)
green part completing.
3.2. The principle of building the solid green block
A solid green block is obtained when the step (f) in Fig. 6
is completed sequentially. Actually, a complete green block is
a combination of two kinds of green block. One is the sacrifice
green block, which is water soluble, with a specified thickness;
the other is the green part block, which is water insoluble, on
the top of the sacrifice block. The green part is embedded in the
green part block. After completing the fabrication of the green
block, the whole unit is immersed to the cold water. The green
block can be separated from the substrate easily, because the sacrifice green block is soluble in water. Although the ingredients
of these two green blocks are different, the fabricating process is
identical but laser scanning. The step of laser scanning is skipped
during the fabrication of sacrifice green block. The principle of

Two kinds of slurry should be prepared before fabricating

the green parts. The formation of the slurry A for building the
sacrifice green block is listed in Table 1. No any organic binder
was included. The formation of the slurry B for building the
green part block is listed in Table 2. The PVA (Type: BF-24,
degree of hydrolysis of 98.599.2 mol%, Chang Chun Petrochemical Co. Ltd., Taiwan) used in the slurry is water insoluble
at ambient temperature, but water soluble at high temperature
(>80 C). Furthermore, a small amount of deformer was added
to eliminate bubbles, and pH 10 was favorable to the optimum
dispersion of the slurry B.
3.4. Fabrication parameters selection
In the present study, a sacrifice block (thickness of 1.5 mm)
was fabricated on a ceramic substrate. Follow the steps
Table 2
Formation of the slurry B in wt.% for building the green part block.
Ingredient

Function

wt.%

Ingredients in the
scanned area

Alumina powder
(D50 = 0.2 m)
Polyvinyl alcohol
(PVA)
De-ion water
Ammonium
polymethacrylate
(DARVAN C-N)
Defoamer
NaOH solution

Structure element

63.45

Remaining

1.02

Evaporating

31.73
0.63

Evaporating
Evaporating

0.63
2.54

Evaporating
Evaporating

Binder
Solution
Dispersant

Bubble remover
pH value adjustment

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985

Fig. 6. Schematic of the new process.

mentioned in Section 3.2, the green part block was built with
slurry B on the sacrifice block layer by layer. A pulsed CO2
laser (Model: 48W-1, Power Stability: 5%, Synrad Inc., USA)
was used. For a good reproducibility of the results, the energy
density and the repetition rate of the laser is crucial; a power
stabilizer (Closed Loop Stabilization kid, Synrad Inc., USA,
factory installed) was installed on the laser to guarantee the
power stability within 2%. Based on the experiment of binder
burn-out, the layer thickness of 25 m and the scanning parameters (PL = 1.3 W and VS = 18 mm/s) were selected to fabricate
the green parts for verifying the feasibility of the new process.
The whole unit of the green block with substrate was
immersed to the water for separating the green block from the
substrate. The water insoluble green part could be separated from
reserved area of the green block by an ultrasonic cleaner.
4. Results and discussion
The heat generated by laser beam was transferred downwards
to selectively gasify the binder. The depth of the weaken area
(D) depended on the laser power and scanning speed. The permeating depth (d) of the binder and solution in the fresh slurry
layer could be limited as shown in Fig. 3(c). The permeating
binder and solution could not filled up all the pores in the binder

burn-out area; therefore, a weaken area was formed is due to

the limitation of the binding strength between the powders. The
result was helpful to separate the green part from the excess
material. To achieve a continuous weaken area, not only the
scanning track must fully or partially overlap but also the depth
of the binder burn-out area (D) must be no less than the binding
thickness tb . tb equals 2t when d equals t. Under the condition
of D = tb = 2t, the binder in the adjacent scanning track could
be burned out completely; thus, almost no residual binder was
left in the binder burn-out area. However, the reserved area provided a higher binding strength because the area still possessed
much more binder. The green part and excess material embedded in the reserved area could be taken apart easily because
the linear weaken area was formed with cutting mode scanning.
Fig. 8 shows a 2.5D alumina part made with the selected
parameters mentioned in Section 3.4. The depth of the weaken
area (D) measured with an optical microscope was about 55 m.
For the layer thickness t = 25 m, the depth complied with the
requirement of D  2t.
Fig. 9 shows the 3D alumina green parts. The part reveals
that the contours of the parts were not really sharp because minor
residual PVA and powders still adhered to the surface of the part.
The PVA contained in the reserved area was insoluble when the
green block was immersed in the cold water. Nevertheless, the

Fig. 7. Schematic of the fabrication of the green block.

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Fig. 8. The 2.5D alumina part. (a) The excess material, (b) the green part, and (c) the sintered part.

Fig. 11. Schematic of the weaken area for building an inclined or curve surface.

Fig. 9. The alumina green parts fabricated with the new process.

residual PVA was burned out, thus the residual powders fall off
during the post-treatment of sintering. Fig. 10 shows the sintered
alumina parts possessed the smooth contours. The corresponding inclined or curve weaken area must be built as shown in
Fig. 11 to fabricate the part with an inclined or a curve surface.
In such linear weaken area, a part of the fresh layer belonged
to the green part. Obviously, a correct selection of laser scanning parameters is very important to achieve the binder burn-out
rather than the ablation. No ceramic powder will remain in the
crater to support the fresh layer when the ablation occurs.
The layer thickness used in the present study is 25 m, which
is much less than that used in the LSD. The LSD process
builds up layers with a thickness between 100 m and 200 m.
Because of the thinner layer, theoretically, the staircase in SLB

Fig. 10. The sintered alumina parts.

is improved, and the energy required to burn out the binder may
be much lower than the energy engaged to directly sinter the
powder in LSD. One of the advantages of the LSD is the high
building rate induced by builds-up with thicker layers. In the
present study, although more layers have to be deposited to reach
the required thickness of the green part, time-taken of the outline scanning is much less than that of the hatch scanning used in
other slurry-based processes. Therefore, the SLB also possesses
the feature of high building rate which benefits the fabrication
of large ceramic parts as LOM and CAM-LEM do.

5. Conclusions
In the present study, a novel process to fabricate the ceramic
green parts is proposed. No sheet material used in LOM and
CAM-LEN is required; therefore, the mechanism of sheet material supplying roll and excess material take-up roll is also not
needed. The complete process can be operated in a single unit.
The required space for the apparatus is much less than that of
LOM and CAM-LEM need. Furthermore, the new process also
possesses the feature (outline scanning) of LOM and CAM-LEN
providing. The part with complex geometry can be manufactured without additional pressing and tooling because of the
good binding between the green layers. Based on the principle
of selective laser burn-out, the feasibility of the new process is
verified through the successful fabrication of the alumina green
parts. The new process is time and cost saving. The operation
window, dimensional accuracy, and the mechanical properties
of the sintered part will be the next important topics of the new
process.

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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from National Science Council of ROC under project
NSC103-2622-E-027-004-CC2. We also thank Mr. Shih-Wei
Huang and Mr. Chen-Chin Chang in National Taipei University
of Technology for their assistance in specimen fabrication.
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