When the American company Stratasys’ patent for the filament-based 3D-printing expired in 2009, few would have thought that the desktop 3D-printer or FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) printers would become so widely adopted and that too in such a short time. By 2019, FFF of thermoplastic had become a well-established technology for prototyping and manufacturing, and less than half a decade later we are now witnessing the ascension of FFF of ceramics and metals to the mainstream of 3D-printing and manufacturing technologies. The technology of FFF which started of with the most commonly-used plastics like PLA, ABS, PETG, etc is now capable of manufacturing technical ceramics like SiC, alumina, zirconia, and the list goes on.

Just like the FFF printers you might have seen in the workshop of 3DCERAM Sinto/FR, this process also uses filament albeit with high volumetric loading (around 50 %) of fine ceramic powder dispersed in a thermoplastic matrix. Once the shaping has been done with the FFF printer, the “green” arts are then subjected to debinding (process of elimination of binder) followed by sintering (process of compacting the fine ceramic powder) to obtain a pure part of ceramic.

The shaping process for ceramics – although very similar to the thermoplastic filaments – does tend to differ from the usual FFF process you might be implementing in your workshop. One of the main differences as compared to the thermoplastic filaments is that the filaments are much more brittle and soft – compared to those of PLA for example – and do not bend so easily – at least not without breaking. This demands an extruder motor and extrusion mechanism that extrudes these filaments carefully while making sure that it still has enough torque to overcome the viscosity to push the melted liquid out of a fine nozzle that can be as small as 0,3 mm in diameter. In addition the filaments of most technical ceramics tend to melt at temperatures that can be lower by 50–100 °C as compared to plastic FFF materials. They soften already at temperatures of 40–50 °C.

This means that while the filament warms up close to nozzle, it has to be cooled everywhere else! In addition, there are numerous other fine points that need to be taken care of like the choice of suitable abrasion resistant material and size of nozzle, extrusion parameters that are significantly different to those of the thermoplastics, slicing algorithms to reduce the internal stress in body during shaping, and so on.

The list can be long and cumbersome, and as new technology user the path to the perfect part could be long (and may be slightly frustrating) – and that is why MAT is here to your rescue. M.A.T., short for Multi Additive Technology, is a dedicated 3D printer for ceramics. The many features like water-cooling of the heat-sensitive filament extrusion head, closed-loop motor control for the XYZ drives of the printer, direct radiative heating of the printed parts to enhance layer adhesion, etc. means that the elusive perfect part is not so elusive anymore and just a few clicks away from being printed and thrusted into its desired application. The basic version of the M.A.T. – which was launched in November 2022 at formnext – currently enables production of ceramics like SiC, alumina, zirconia and the premium package can extends it capability to metal like stainless steel, titanium and copper.

• Type of printer: ...............................................Fused Filament Fabrication

• Footprint: ........................................................70 (W) x 65 (D) x 65 (H) cm

• Print volume: ..................................................20 (W) x 20 (D) x 20 (H) cm

• Machine weight: .............................................ca. 60 kg

• Supply: .............................................................230V, 16A, 50Hz

• Axis: .................................................................Core XY and buildpate moving in Z

• Displacement guiding: ....................................Linear rails for X, Y and Z

• Number of printing head: ...............................1

• Filament diameter: ..........................................1.75 mm

• Max. nozzle temperature: ...............................270°C

Option: Heated bed and heated chamber to print metals

Compatible with Cura (recommanded)/Slic3r/Simplify 3D

Suitable for all:

o Ceramic filaments

• Silicon Carbide

• Alumina

• Zirconia

o Metal filaments

• Titanium

• Stainless Steel

• Copper

Compatible filaments to be supplied with printer

In addition to FFF, M.A.T. takes the possibilities with extrusion-based technologies a step further through two additional processes i.e., CNC machining and robocasting. 

The sturdy frame of the M.A.T. enables users to quickly swap the head – once they are done with printing – and replace it with a CNC tool. The 3-axis CNC tool can then be used to further refine the printed part - for example contour milling to improves its surface finish, plane milling to improve its flatness, simply some basic machining to improve the resolution of its functional elements.

The result is a part that has been successfully machined without the need for further post-processing after sintering. A special mention needs to go out to the fact that treating ceramics after printing/before sintering or in their green state –when they are soft – is much easier and economic than to perform these operations once they are sintered (after sintering ceramics like SiC tend to demonstrate diamond-like hardness, which as you can imagine can make machining quite challenging).

Contact : 3DCeram Sinto Tiwari GmbH
Rudower Chaussee 29
12489 Berlin

Tel: +49 (0)30 4397 0750