Objective
Precursor materials:
SiO2 and ZrO2 precursor materials were successfully developed to meet the specific needs for the process and the application. The development of suitable Al2O3 precursors for application on cemented carbides was not successful. The Ni/ZrO2 precursor for making electrically conductive layers was not laser-sinterable. An Ag-based precursor material proved to be a suitable alternative.
Ink-jetting:
Several of the SiO2 and ZrO2 precursor materials were successfully formulated into ink-jet inks suitable for printing on non-porous substrates. Concept inks with limited pot-life were made for the Al2O3 and Ni/ZrO2 sols. The print heads were modified to handle the aqueous inks developed in the project. The print head was adapted to print smaller droplets for fine line (60µm) applications. Lines and areas (2D) could be applied on steel and fused silica substrates using the inks developed. An electronic tool to run the OEM print-heads was developed and is now a commercially available product.
Sintering:
Laser-heating processes, specific for each substrate, were developed to sinter the precursor layers. Laser-sintering was successful for all precursors on fused silica (except the Ni/ZrO2). Several ZrO2 precursors could be laser-sintered on steel. Sintering of the Al2O3 precursors on cemented carbides was not successful. An analytical temperature model for laser heating was developed.
Equipment:
A demonstrator was built to run the Acerlink process on pilot scale. Accurate printing is possible, but integration of the other technologies was not yet achieved.
Applications:
Friction-reducing layers could be made by the Acerlink process on steel substrates. Well-conducting lines and areas could be made by laser heating. Multi-layer structures and composites could be made by laser-heating precursor layers made by spin-coating. Suitable ZrO2 layers with a refractive index of over 2 were made for pigment applications. It was also proven that the ZrO2 layers had suitable dielectric properties for applications in electronic compounds and circuits.
The multi-colour capability of ink-jet technology and the stereostiction process were not explored. Shaping of 3D bodies and the manufacturing of pigments were not studied.
1) Industrial companies manufacturing complex millimeter
sized ceramic mass products, typically made from plates
or bars containing many products suffer the problems of
the complexity and inflexibility of the batch oriented
processes. The separation of ceramic microparts causes up
to 30% waste of material. Ceramic products seriously
deform during sintering. Ceramic foils cannot be made in
layers below 5 mm thick but much thinner layers are
wanted.
2) In the coating industry the usual CVD process for wear
resistant layers is very time consuming and cannot be
applied locally.
The new technology inkjet prints a sol of nanosized
particles and directly dnes and laser sinters the
pattern. It is able to produce composite ceramic/ metal/
glass products with arbitrate patterns (also
3dimensional) directly sintered at low bulk temperatures
and without the need for subtractive shaping, trimming or
product separation afterwards. This is repeated many
times very fast in multilayers. The new technology is
called 'stereostiction'. Due to the additive nature of
the new technology and the flexibility of both inkjet and
laser technology the main benefits are:
* Reduction of manufacturing costs by up to 5 X reduction
of number of processing steps
* Full software control allows mass production with batch
size of 1 piece
* Additive processes produce no waste material for
product separation, giving up to 30% material cost
reduction and environmental load.
* Minimumlayerthickness
* Printing speed is at least 5 cm2/sec; the aim is 50 pm
line width and 5 1mm landing accuracy.
The first objective is 2 D local patterning of wear
resistant layers on various materials. The second
objective is 2 D patterning and composite generation
using the 'multicolor' capability of inkjet technology
using colloidal sols of different materials made via the
sol gel route instead of colored inks. The third
objective is 3 D shaping with ready sintered ceramics in
multi pass with a sliced CAD design where patterns are
stacked The fourth objective is reduction of costs and
environmental impact by the additive nature of the
technology and by the use of waterbased matrices instead
of organic solvents.
The consortium has strong complementary expertise's and
comprises two industrial users of the new technology and
know how: Philips for high tech electronic products and
Sandvik for high quality cutting tools. All partners are
developers/ suppliers: Merck introduce their expertise
for practical industrialization, Pelikan bring their ink
expertise, MIT bring inkjet system expertise, FHG ISC
bring sol gel expertise, Philips bring laser technology,
Sandvik bring wear resistance expertise and RuG bring
interface and microstructure expertise. Pelikan and MIT
are SMEs. A prototype system with an inkjet printer and a
laser system able to show the technology will be built.
High production speed is attainable by multiple high
speed nozzles. Laser sintered mono and multilayers will
be produced by dip and spin coating early in the project
to investigate the sintering process. The industrial
partners are responsible for process development together
with FHG ISC (solgel formulation) and Groningen
University (metal ceramic interfacing). Pelikan will
formulate the base sols to a printable liquid and act as
the industrial supplier while MIT will develop the
printing heads and build the prototype system with the
purpose to market the system. Philips will develop the
embedded laser technology.
The new technology can offer product design freedom in
ceramics, glass and even metals formerly impossible. In
principle also UV curing plastic monomers could be
processed using a UV laser (stereolithography with
inkjet).
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology materials engineering composites
- engineering and technology materials engineering coating and films
- engineering and technology materials engineering amorphous solids
- engineering and technology materials engineering ceramics
- natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
5600 MD Eindhoven
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.