APPLICATION OF SELECTIVE SEPARATION SINTERING IN CERAMICS 3D PRINTING

Application of Selective Separation Sintering (SSS) in ceramics 3D printing promises to print ceramic parts at comparatively lower cost with high quality. SSS is a layer based 3D printing approach. In the printing process, a dry powder of higher sintering temperature is deposited into the base material layer. The inserted powder defines the boundary of the part and separates the part from its surroundings. When printing of all layers is completed, the deposited dry powder serves as a separation coating which defines the shape of the part. In the sintering process the base material is sintered into a solid part while the separation coating remains as loose powder. The part is then separated from the adjacent sections from the separation coating and post processed if necessary. Preliminary results have proven the capability of SSS in printing ceramic parts. Future experiments are planned for improving the process resolution.