Creating things with ceramics is nothing new-people have been doing this for centuries. There are also methods for 3D printing ceramics. Well, you usually 3D print wet ceramics and then fire them in a kiln.However, recent research suggests A new method to produce 3D printed ceramicsThe idea is to use TPU injected with polysilazane (a ceramic precursor polymer) for printing. The resulting print is then fired to form the final ceramic product.
The process relies on certain types of fillers to create small channels in the print to help update the polysilazane. The printer is a garden-style Lulzbot TAZ 6 with ordinary 0.15 mm and 0.25 mm nozzles.
This process does not sound fast. After printing, the part stays in an acetone bath for 15 minutes with a small amount of platinum-based catalyst. Then they added the polymer and waited for 4 hours, then air-dried for 24 hours.
It may not be easy to fire in an ordinary kiln. The final stage is one hour at 1200°C in nitrogen. We don’t know how this will be used with more traditional tools, and we know that the catalyst is a bit expensive. On the other hand, you don’t use much. If you have some ceramic work experience and tools, this may be an experimental field.
This is very different from the usual methods we see. If you want to build your own kiln, please start here.