Cure behaviour and mechanical properties of Si3N4 ceramics with bimodal particle size distribution prepared using digital light processing

Digital light processing is a vital additive manufacturing technology used for manufacturing ceramic parts. The particle size distribution of ceramic suspensions significantly affects the cure behaviour and mechanical prop-erties of ceramics. In this study, the cure behaviour and mechanical properties of Si3N4 ceramics with a bimodal particle size distribution were studied. The results indicated that the suspension with coarse particles had a higher cure depth for a lower absorbance but poor mechanical properties. The bending strength of the samples with the optimal ratio (coarse:fine particles = 3:7) reached a maximum of 728.7 +/- 10.33 MPa, which is 16.5% higher than that of the samples prepared using only fine particles.