Ceramics and multi-material 3D printing

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing has become very popular during the last years. Laser Sintering of metals is close to industrial serial production. Ceramic components can be produced by Stereolithography on a small scale, with properties comparable to injection molding. 3D printing is used to produce customized kiln furniture, bone structures or design objects. By using particle filled inks a lot of new options are possible: dense microstructure, locally reinforced microstructures, and combination of different properties or colors. This technique is called multi-material 3D printing. FDM and 3D extrusion can be used to manufacture near-net-shape semi-finished ceramic products.