Piezoelectric ceramics and composites via rapid prototyping techniques

Reviews the inherent advantages, i.e. design flexibility and processing, of manufacturing piezoelectric ceramics and composites with numerous architectures via rapid prototyping techniques. Reports on processing in which piezoelectric ceramics and composites with novel and conventional designs were fabricated using rapid prototyping techniques. Fused deposition of ceramics, fused deposition modeling, and Sanders prototyping techniques were used to fabricate lead-zirconate-titanate ceramics and ceramic/polymer composites via, first, direct fabrication and, second, in direct fabrication using either lost mold or soft tooling techniques.