Degree of dispersion assessments of highly filled stereolithography suspension using fineness of grind measurement

Agglomerates are a large cluster of primary particles, which may result in the flaws of the final ceramics. Stereolithography suspensions could pose challenges to identify their coarse agglomerates without modifications to their properties; the suspensions are mostly high turbid and viscous in some cases. Any modifications, such as dilution, can alter the actual degree of agglomeration. In this study, a means to characterize the degree of dispersion was developed using the automated fineness of grind gauge. The fineness of grind gauge was visualized to determine the nature of the trapped agglomerates and their distribution. The resulted agglomerate size distribution was treated mathematically as a power law distribution in a selected region. The power law function was found to describe the degree of dispersion of suspensions, which was associated with the coarse agglomerate distribution behavior. [Display omitted] •Identified the degree of dispersion of stereolithography suspensions.•Defined the power law coefficients of the agglomerate size distribution.•Provided a correlation between coarse agglomerate and power law exponent.