Rapid forming of hydroxyapatite-silica ceramics

This paper proposes a solid freefrom fabrication (SFF) technology for fabricating hydroxyapatite(HA)-silica ceramics, which can generate porous three-dimensional physical objects. The HA powder and the silica are mixed with water into slurries form as raw materials. The slurries are paved by a scraper to from a thin layer which is selective scanned by a laser beam according to the cross-section of a 3D model. The HA particles are embeded in the sintered silica matrix to form green parts via a suitable range of process parameters. The benefits of this process are: bio-ceramic parts can be built by lower laser energy and faster fabricating speed. Following a subsequence heat treatment process has been developed to optimize the crystallization process and to increase the strength of the sintered parts. The parts were analyzed by an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to determine the surface roughness. The results obtained indicate that the proposed process was possible to generate multilayer, overhanging, and porous structure with brittle property but sufficient integrity for handling prior to post-processing. It was possible to produce the porous structure from the proposed hydroxyapatite-silica ceramics, which had a greater potential for possible bone scaffolds fabrication.