3D Screen Printing of Solar Absorbers Made of SiSiC, Sintered in an Efficient High-Performance Furnace

摘要

New manufacturing methods like 3D screen printing allow for the development of new unique designs with optimized features. In the present paper the core component of the central receiver system in solar thermal power plants like the Solar Tower Julich - the porous absorber structure - was optimized. The layer-wise printing process allows for the adjustment of form and shape between layers and therefore purposefully varying its geometry along the airflow direction of the volumetric absorbers. By doing so, important properties like the penetration depth of the incident solar irradiation will be improved 1. This new design with delicate, fine-structured parts calls for innovative sintering methods, on the one hand, to maintain the high quality of the 3D-printed parts, and on the other hand to ensure cost-efficiency of the sintering process. Only in this way the 3D-printed components can successfully be introduced in a wide range of mass applications.