Technical Ceramics in Additive Manufacturing

Technical ceramics, as opposed to artisanal or artistic ceramics, are materials that have been used for centuries in many industrial sectors. They are renowned for their temperature resistance, hardness and mechanical properties. In the additive manufacturing sector, ceramics are less popular than polymers or metals and remain a niche market, although 3D technologies are a particularly interesting fit for the materials. Indeed, due to their characteristics, technical ceramics are difficult materials to shape and additive manufacturing represents a relevant alternative in the creation of complex geometries. Currently compatible with photopolymerization, powder bed and extrusion processes, ceramics offer multiple advantages to manufacturers, laboratories and research centers. Among them, the Research Center of the Belgian Ceramic Industry (CRIBC), which has relied on several 3D printing processes, including that of the French manufacturer Pollen AM.

For the past twenty years, CRIBC has invested in additive manufacturing to be able to manufacture parts with complex geometries. Indeed, technical ceramics are fragile and refractory materials and therefore intrinsically difficult to shape. When it comes to creating complex geometries using conventional processes, lead times are extended and the cost of a part is strongly impacted. The promise of additive manufacturing lies precisely in overcoming this pitfall: to offer complex geometries while preserving the properties of ceramics, whatever the material used.

Ceramics are difficult materials to shape. Thanks to additive manufacturing, complex geometries can be imagined (photo credits: 3Dnatives)

Technical Ceramics on the Market

There is currently a very diverse range of technical ceramics that can meet various markets and needs. The family most used in additive manufacturing is undoubtedly oxidized ceramics which, as their name indicates, are composed of metal oxide such as alumina or zirconia. They are used in the medical sector for to make bone implants as well as in the field of watchmaking. Next come the non-oxidized ceramics with nitride materials that combine good mechanical performance and temperature resistance, and carbides that are excessively hard and often used for their tribological resistance. Silicon carbide, for example, is three times harder than steel.