Additive manufacturing of complex shape ceramic parts from lunar regolith simulant
- Paper ID
67162
- author
- company
Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology
- country
Russian Federation
- year
2021
- abstract
In-situ Fabrication and Repair by the means of additive manufacturing with lunar regolith is a promising solution for ensuring sustainable crewed exploration of the Moon. Digital light processing is one of the additive manufacturing procedures, which are being considered for the fabrication of precise ceramic parts and instruments from lunar regolith. In the present paper, we have studied the feasibility of using a commercial DLP 3d-printer and photopolymer binder for manufacturing precise ceramic parts of a complex shape from LHS-1 lunar regolith simulant. Produced samples were studied by the means of gravimetrical densimetry, optical microscopy, SEM, and EDX. It was shown that using an on-shelf DLP printer and photopolymer binder with 57 wt.% Regolith simulant in-fill, complex 3d-objects can be printed and sintered to the relative density of 90.7%. It was found that good mineral homogeneity of pre-processed lunar regolith is one of the key factors for effective DLP-printing and sintering of ceramic parts, manufactured from this material.