Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDC) and Composites

Fabrication of functional ceramics and composites has been attempted using fused deposition of ceramics process. In this work, first a polypropylene (PP) binder system has been developed for the FDM. The PP binder system was mixed with ceramic powders and then extruded in the form of filament for the FDC. Controlled porosity ceramic parts were directly fabricated using a FDM 1650 machine with mullite, fused silica and titania powder loaded green filaments. The parts were then binder removed and sintered. Some of the porous parts were then infiltrated in Al metal to form the metal-ceramic composites. This article discusses feedstock development, part fabrication and methods to improve the quality of parts during processing.Mechanical Engineerin