A novel quasicrystal-resin composite for stereolithography

• A novel quasicrystal-resin composite has been designed for stereolithography.
• The composite resin is found to be UV-curable.
• Complex geometry parts have been manufactured by stereolithography.
• The mechanical properties of the parts have been tested.

Laser stereolithography (SL) is an additive manufacturing technology which is increasingly being used to produce customized end-user parts of any complex shape. It requires the use of a photo-curable resin which can be loaded with ceramic powders or carbon fibers to produce composite parts. However, the range of available materials compatible with the SL process is rather limited. In particular, photo-curable resins reinforced by metal particles are difficult to process, because of fundamental limitations related to the high reflectivity of intermetallics in the UV–visible range. In this work, the unique properties of Al-based quasicrystalline alloys are being used to develop a new UV-curable resin reinforced by such metal particles. The optical properties of the quasicrystalline particles and of the filled resin are studied and they are found to be compatible with the SL process. The volume fraction of the filler particles in the liquid resin is optimized to increase the polymerization depth while preserving suitable rheological behaviour. Finally, 3D composite parts are being built by SL. The composite parts have improved mechanical properties compared to the unfilled resin (higher hardness, reduced wear losses and lower friction coefficient) and compete favourably with the other commercial photo-curable resins.