Particulate filled thermoplastics composites for the material extrusion additive manufacturing of ceramics and metals

Additive manufacturing (AM) has revolutionized how products are designed and manufactured. The most common AM technique is Material Extrusion (MEX) due to its low investment costs and simplicity of operation. New software, devices and materials are constantly being developed further to increase the capabilities and reliability of MEX technologies. Among the materials that have been developed, a unique class of thermoplastic composites is of particular interest. This class of materials consists of a thermoplastic matrix filled with a high content of sinterable particles of ceramic or metal. These materials allow MEX to be used to fabricate ceramic and metal specimens by following the shape, debind and sinter steps. Our research has demonstrated that one type of matrix composition can be used to produce parts of IN718, titanium, copper, alumina, zirconia, 17-4PH steel, hard metal, cermet, 316L steel, NdFeB and multi-material specimens of steel and zirconia. The main challenges and opportunities of using particulate-filled thermoplastics to produce ceramic and metals are discussed in this presentation.