3d Printing

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The future of additive manufacturing in ceramics industry is very bright. Additive ceramic printers have been provided to the customers in one of the leading international research institutes. Also, aviation sector has shown interest in casting cores made with additive manufacturing. “Turbine blades are regularly used in temperature ranges that are above their melting point. One of the reasons this is possible is the presence of complex cooling channels inside the blade, which are made using casting cores. Up to date, these casting cores are produced by injection molding. But it is already clear that this approach will no longer be sufficient due to limited complexity of parts produced by this technique. “(Johanson Benedikt quoted by Homa, 24). Homa says “Because of its tool-free manufacturing technology, the LCM approach enables fabrication of highly complex structures and more casting cores at the same time.”(24). Medical industry uses Additive manufactured parts as permanent implants, because materials used in the manufacturing process, such as alumina and zirconia are biocompatible. Also, the company helped to develop a bioresorbable material to be used as a temporary implants which do not need to be removed. Homa believes that there is a lot of potential in expanding the use of additive manufacturing and the ceramics industry can apply it in different applications.

Lithoz GmbH is a pioneer of solving the obstacles and creating a unique technology for the use of additive manufacturing in ceramics industry. They are able to manufacture parts with strength and density very close to the parts manufactured in conventional ways. The use of parts manufactured by additive printing, in different sectors, is growing and the future of this technology is very promising.

Work Cited

Homa, Monika. "Scaling up—The high potential of additive manufacturing for[e] the ceramics industry.” American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 95, No.3.[f] (April 2016):22-26. www.ceramics.[g]org. Web. 24 June 2016.[h]