Microwave sintering of dense and lattice 3Y-TZP samples shaped by digital light processing

Nowadays it is possible to produce ceramic parts with solid and complex shapes with rapid and efficient shaping and sintering techniques. In this paper, 3mol% yttria stabilized zirconia (3Y-TZP) dense and lattice parts were shaped by Digital light processing method (DLP) and densified by conventional (CV) and microwave (MW) sintering. 3Y-TZP samples were MW sintered up to 1550 °C with different heating rates (10, 30, and 50 °C/min) for the dense samples and 30 °C/min for the lattice samples. Controlled thermal cycles with a homogenous heating and no thermal runaway was reached. CV sintering was carried out at 10 °C/min up to 1550 °C. No inter-layer delamination was detected after sintering by the two methods. Both dense and lattice MW-sintered samples reached high final densities (equivalent to obtained values with CV-sintered samples, i.e., ≥98% T.D.), but exhibited a lower average grain size than CV-sintered materials. The different architectures between dense and lattice samples resulted in a different specific absorbed power: the power absorbed by the dense sample is lower than that absorbed by the lattice one meaning that this sample architecture heats up easily.