Ceramic Additive Manufacturing Consultancy
If you're involved in, or considering trialling ceramic additive manufacturing (AM) methods, Lucideon provides all the support you need to develop and optimise your material formulations and processes.
Additive manufacturing offers a revolutionary step change in design and manufacture for ceramics. If thoughtfully and effectively deployed, as an enabling technology AM offers extraordinary possibilities including the ability to rapidly prototype, minimise material wastage, minimise tooling costs, shorten lead times and produce complex geometries that could not otherwise be obtained through conventional forming methods.
An enabling technology
Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the primary enabling technologies of Industry 4.0, characterised by increased automation, the uptake of enhanced data science and machine learning, and the adoption of smart technology. Achieving sustainable AM processes for advanced ceramics would demonstrate potential in scaling production of 3D fabricated ceramic materials suitable for harsh environments.
Whilst additive manufacturing for polymers and metals is well-developed, for ceramics the technology remains imperfect; 3D printing large parts while retaining high resolution is not currently feasible in one print run, instead requiring the assembly of multiple smaller pieces as an additional processing step. Finding methods of mitigating or bypassing this and other issues could be crucial to the continued mainstreaming of ceramic additive manufacturing technology.
Ceramic additive manufacturing has been researched, developed and studied for almost as long as additive manufacturing has existed and while it has always shown great promise, only very recently have the first real, practical and commercial applications of ceramic additive manufacturing started to emerge.
Our research is optimising binder removal and sintering of AM parts, developing novel formulations of materials that previously could not be printed, increasing the practicality of 3D printing at scale, and improving its suitability for incorporation into the larger automated manufacturing environment that is the ultimate goal of Industry 4.0.
Ceramic robocasting / extrusion
Robocasting (also called robotic material extrusion) is an additive manufacturing technique analogous to direct ink writing and other extrusion-based 3D-printing techniques. Extrusion is the simplest of the ceramic additive manufacturing technologies, and is based on the extrusion and deposition of ceramic-based pastes or fused ceramic/polymer filaments. This method includes selective deposition of a ceramic paste/filament by movement of the extruder head or build platform in x-y directions, as well as moving in z axis after depositing each layer. These techniques excel in crafting complex geometries, and research is underway to address common challenges, such as porosity in final parts, handling brittle filaments, and green machining for intricate designs.
Stereolithography (SLA)
Stereolithography is a vat polymerisation technique through which layers of a photocurable resin mixed with ceramic powder are spread and selectively hardened by a laser or light projector. SLA is not suitable for production of thick-walled parts.
The manufactured components need a long debinding process due to the large amount of resin used during this process (volume fraction higher than 40%). However, this technique is has the ability to deliver complex geometries with an excellent surface finish.
Here at Lucideon, our consultancy services can help to determine the optimal additive manufacturing technique and material formulations for you and your applications.
Applications
One such example of improvement made possible by ceramic additive manufacturing is in the field of ceramic heat exchangers, used in several high temperature applications including solar energy harvesting, reusing heat from furnace exhausts, and thermal energy sources.
3D printed ceramics are able to be formed in complex shapes impossible to manufacture through conventional methods, offering the ability to create the components needed to maximise heat transfer performance whilst minimising pressure drop, maintaining operational efficiency.
Further resources
Ceramic Additive Manufacturing at Lucideon
Lucideon's role is to support our clients through the journey of additive manufacturing trials and implementation through consultancy. Learn more about how we're bringing next-generation materials technology to life in our brochure.
» Click here to view or download the brochure (pdf file)
Additive Manufacturing Consultancy
Lucideon's additive manufacturing consultancy service operates across metals, polymers, and ceramics, addressing clients' unique challenges.
White Papers
Additive Manufacturing can provide innovative forming opportunities and can offer the potential of being able to be integrated alongside traditional methods
This white paper introduces the most common methods for ceramic additive manufacturing
This white paper looks at applications and potential applications of ceramic materials in the aerospace and defence industry