Ceramic thesis

Slurry-based ceramic 3D printing technologies generally involve liquid or semi-liquid systems dispersed with fine ceramic particles as feedstock, either in the form of inks or pastes, depending on the solid loading and viscosity of the system.

Ceramic components are generally formed into the desired shapes starting from a mixture of powder with or without binders and other additives, using conventional technologies, including injection moulding, die pressing, tape casting, gel casting etc. [ 1 ].

Sintering of the green parts at higher temperatures is further required to achieve densification. However, these ceramic forming techniques give rise to limitations in terms of long processing times and high cost.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the stereolithography (SL) process. The SL of ceramics proceeds with the addition of fine ceramic particles, down to micro/nanometre size, into the photocurable medium, which can be aqueous or non-aqueous [ 8, 9 ].