Rapid prototyping

In opposition to traditional machining in which part is manufactured by material removal, rapid prototyping techniques allow parts manufacturing by material addition. The part is built layer-by-layer and the sum of all layers creates the part. Currently, several techniques exist. They use different kind of materials (metals, ceramics, polymers) and technologies (laser melting, laser polymerising, 3D-printing, cladding, ...). Some of these techniques can deal with nanometric particles. In the case of which a near net shape part is built and must be sintered after shaping, the addition of nano-particles can be useful for sintering by increasing specific surface and reactivity of the batch or by improving the properties of the material. An overview about techniques of rapid prototyping allowing the processing of nanomaterials will be discussed. Tests have been done using Optoform process. This process uses a laser to polymerize a paste made of photo-curable resin loaded with powdered material. Nano-particles can be added and stabilized in the paste. In this presentation, the results obtained with both systems Al2O3 + nano Zr02 and SiC + Nano SiC will be discussed