A uniform laser energy control for ceramic sintering rapid prototyping

Abstract

The rapid-prototyping has become popular nowadays as the lifecycles of commercial and consumer products have been shorten to years or even months. The rapid prototyping technology provides a modern way to review the rapid change of the product has forced the designers and manufacturers to make new designs, jigs, tools, and molds for the products. Unlike the traditional machining of cutting material, the rapid prototyping utilize technologies, such as etching, laser, etc., to form the shapes of designed articles within limited time and cost. As cutting-through is prohibited, means to control the machining are required and important to the success of prototyping. This study has focused on the laser energy control for the ceramic rapid prototyping, which will sinter the ceramic powders into a solid object. A uniform laser energy controller is developed to improve the quality of the ceramic working piece. The developed method has been implemented and tested on a MCU and FPGA controller to demonstrate its applicability to ceramic sintering rapid prototyping.