Quartz glass parts can now be accurately produced using a 3D printer

Brilliant in shape Quartz glass parts can now be accurately produced using a 3D printer

2024-08-01 Source: Upnano | Translated by AI 3 min Reading Time

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The Vienna-based company Upnano GmbH has co-developed a new manufacturing process for 3D printed objects made of quartz glass...

This little Eiffel Tower was created with a specially adapted 3D printer from Upnano in Vienna. It is made of quartz glass, which can be processed very precisely with it. This milestone was achieved together with the German partner Glassomer...(Image: Upnano) — This little Eiffel Tower was created with a specially adapted 3D printer from Upnano in Vienna. It is made of quartz glass, which can be processed very precisely with it. This milestone was achieved together with the German partner Glassomer...
(Image: Upnano)

This innovative additive manufacturing capability now allows the production of highly precise molded parts in the millimeter and centimeter range. About five years ago, there was already a similar report from ETH Zurich. However, the glass parts printed in a lattice-like manner based on the principle of stereolithography were not yet very precise geometrically. The new method is now based on an innovation from Glassomer GmbH in Freiburg. It has been modified for 3D printing using 2-photon polymerization (2PP) with the help of a high-resolution Nanoone printer from Upnano. These are the fastest commercially available 2PP 3D printers on the market that print over 15 orders of magnitude — thus more than any other printer.

Printing small quartz glass components with smooth surfaces

The production of tiny and complex 3D objects from glass is, according to the Austrians, a demanding process. This is all the more true when the required material is to be high-quality quartz glass (SiO₂). This is because the material has an exceptionally high melting point with regard to the printing of components. The only methods possible so far, therefore, are based on non-commercially available devices that can melt glass fibers with laser beams. There is also Fused Deposition Modeling for the production of normal glass. However, these methods often led to end products with rough surfaces, which are often undesirable. Now, however, Upnano and Glassomer have developed a rapid 3D printing process to additively manufacture smooth quartz glass components with structures that can even be in the micrometer range, as they emphasize.

Quartz glass printing is quite similar to ceramic part manufacturing

It is a three-step process, explains Markus Lunzer, team leader of Materials & Application at Upnano. The first step is to design and print the desired structure, taking advantage of all the benefits of 2PP-3D printing. Then the organic binder material is removed. This is followed as a third step by a high-temperature sintering process, Lunzer explains. The key element in quartz glass printing is a newly developed nanocomposite "UpQuartz". In addition to SiO₂ nanoparticles, it contains a specially developed plastic matrix that enables the 2PP-3D printing of the composite in the first place. As a result of the printing process, a "green part" emerges, similar to ceramic manufacturing, which already has the shape of the final and desired structure. In order to get the quartz glass product in the end, the polymer matrix has to be removed. This is achieved by heating the green part to 600 °C, leaving a so-called "brown part". This is very similar to the final product and consists only of SiO₂. This part is finally sintered at 1,300 °C. During the finishing process, the component shrinks isotropically by about 30 percent, which can be easily compensated for in advance by scaling up the "green part" using Upnano software. In the end, the printed quartz glass part is available in the desired dimensions.

Here you can see several impressive components made of additively processed quartz glass, which were printed with the developments of Upnano and Glassomer. The most important thing is a special composite called "UpQuartz"
(Image:Upnano)

Above all, large glass parts can also be printed precisely

The quartz glass printing process is also ideally suited for larger 3D printed glass parts that require high resolution and precision. Such demands are made by the mechanical engineering field as well as chemistry, medicine, and research, it says. Quartz glass offers excellent optical properties, is biocompatible, chemically inert. Added to this is the extraordinarily heat resistance, which makes it an ideal material for a wide range of applications. After Upnano recently successfully advanced the material testing of 2PP-3D printed parts with Upnano printers and resins for macroscopic test specimens, this new development again represents a significant advance in terms of the potential of 2PP-3D printing, as Lunzer emphasizes. In addition, the company's printers have recently been used to reach a significant milestone - the production of fully embedded microfluidic chips and microstructures made of tungsten and platinum with a resolution in the sub-micrometer range.

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