Rapid Manufacturing Technology for Ceramic Parts Based of Gelation of Polyvinyl Alcohol

A new rapid manufacturing technology for ceramic parts was proposed.The feature of this technology came from its layer-by-layer fabrication of the gelled PVA-ceramic suspensions induced by sodiumtetraborate while the single layer was fabricated by gelation of the suspensions after cutting and in situ filling with PVA water solution.Rutile ceramic was successfully prepared by this technology.Preparation of titanium dioxide slurry was performed and the manufacturing process of the green ceramic body was given.The organic pyrolysis in the low temperature phase of PVA was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis.No delamination was exhibited by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and no residual boron phase was identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis.A mean bending strength of 45.6 MPa was determined by a tri-point bending test.