Metal filled resin for stereolithography metal part

A new route to produce metallic parts through stereolithography is explored in this work. Stereolithography of metallic materials consists of a UV curable metallic suspension prepared with a pre-polymer acting as the binder material, a photo-initiator, metallic powder and additives. The critical material and process parameters are investigated in order to identify appropriate photosensitive metallic suspensions for stereolithography, based on their theological and photochemical properties. Two different types of resins, unsaturated polyester and epoxy resin were considered in this study, to get a better understanding of free radical, cationic and hybrid polymerisation mechanisms, being the photo-curing reactions carried out at different light intensities. The powder used was either tungsten carbide (WC) or cobalt (Co) with different powder sizes. (c) 2008 CIRP.