27.12.2012 Views

DESIGN, ASSEMBLY AND CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPOSITE ...

DESIGN, ASSEMBLY AND CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPOSITE ...

DESIGN, ASSEMBLY AND CHARACTERIZATION OF COMPOSITE ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

ability to manipulate composition variations due to the use of powder bed platforms.<br />

Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS) 3 could produce composition variations in space,<br />

but it uses of focused high power radiation, as also seen in SLS and EBM, creates high<br />

thermal stress and may cause cracks in ceramic-metal composites. Methods like Three-<br />

Dimensional Printing (3DP) 7 and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 4 use high binder<br />

content and face a significant binder removal issue in the finishing steps. New methods<br />

and material systems have to be developed for SFF to overcome the inherent difficulties<br />

and limitations in the context of ceramic-metal composites.<br />

1.2. Thesis Objective<br />

The overarching objective of the work described in this thesis is assembly of a<br />

complex, three-dimensional structure of ferroelectric BaTiO3 ceramic along with Ni<br />

metal. This dissertation details the evolution of a SFF technique called Robocasting to<br />

assemble functional, ceramic-metal composites with controlled structure on a sub-<br />

millimeter length scale. The Robocasting method was originally developed at Sandia<br />

National Laboratories and is similar to other extrusion-based SFF methods in print<br />

strategy. The extruded filament, however, is unique. The printing ink requires colloidal<br />

processing of materials in a concentrated, aqueous-gel form. The ink is robotically<br />

patterned by controlled extrusion followed by drying, binder burnout, and co-sintering of<br />

composite green compacts. To realize the goal of SFF of functional metal-ceramic<br />

composites requires building upon an existing knowledge-base of colloidal processing of<br />

polyelectrolyte stabilized ceramic and metallic sols, co-sintering of base metal electrodes<br />

with ferroelectric ceramics and the diverse field of functionally graded materials. The<br />

intersection of these fields generates new knowledge about the importance of controlling<br />

2

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!