Selective laser densification of lithium aluminosilicate glass ceramic tapes

Highlights: ► Selective laser densification of glass-ceramic tapes has been investigated. ► A possible application to the layerwise-slurry deposition process was evaluated. ► The effect of a few percent organic in the slurry was also studied. ► A range of parameters was identified to densify layers without macroscopic defects. - Abstract: Tapes, cast by blade deposition of a lithium aluminosilicate glass slurry, were sintered using a YAG-fiber laser, with the aim of finding suitable parameters for an additive manufacturing process based on layer-wise slurry deposition and selective laser densification. The influence of the laser parameters (output power and scan velocity) on the sintering was evaluated, by scanning electron microscopy and by X-ray diffraction, on the basis of the quality of the processed layer. Well densified samples could be obtained only in a small window of values for the output power and the scan velocity. The measurement of the width of a set of single scanned lines allowed also to estimate the minimum resolution of the system along the layer plane.