Research Progress of Additive Manufacturing Ceramics and Metals Based on Light Curing Technique

Additive manufacturing is one of the most potential edge-cutting technologies in the current decades. As a branch of the additive manufacturing, the light curing technology possesses the advantages of high efficiency, low energy consumption and good manufacturing precision. It is considered to have a greater economic and technical significance that surpasses traditional manufacturing techniques, by overcoming the latter’s drawbacks-long production cycle, machining difficulties and high cost when producing metals and ceramics. The light curing technique for oxide ceramic materials has been extensively developed and improved for fabricating dense or porous ceramic parts in a variety of fields, such as microelectronics components, photonic crystals, and orthopedic implants. However, the light curing of non-oxide ceramic and metals is not mature enough yet for industrial production, especially as the slurry preparation for ceramic and metallic materials is still challenging. The paper intends to review the research progress in the fabrication of oxide ceramics, non-oxide ceramics and metallic materials by light curing. The main technical challenges and possible solutions are proposed in terms of three primary stages, i. e., slurry preparation, light curing forming and post processing, with respect to the production of the above-mentioned three typical categories of materials. A brief outlook of the future development trends is also given. © 2023 Cailiao Daobaoshe/ Materials Review. All rights reserved.