A review on the ceramic additive manufacturing technologies and availability of equipment and materials

Abstract

Ceramic additive manufacturing allows the fabrication of small series of complex parts without the high costs of molds usually associated with traditional ceramic processing. Although research into ceramic 3D printing by all technologies started back in the 90s, its industrial application is still quite restricted when compared to polymers and metals, which is related to the limited availability and costs of equipment and materials for such applications. This review examined the advantages and limitations of each process (binder jetting, direct ink writing, directed energy deposition, fused deposition, material jetting, selective laser sintering, selective laser melting, and vat photopolymerization), discussing their particularities. It also summarized the commercially available 3D printers and raw materials for ceramic processing, pointing out to trends and challenges of each technology.