Research & Development

The key to sustainably living on the moon is being able to manufacture the necessary structures and spares in situ and on-demand. This avoids the cost, volume, and up-mass constraints that would prohibit a successful launch with everything needed for long-duration missions on the moon.

In terms of meeting the demand for parts with highly complex geometries and high accuracy, ceramic stereolithography is a revolutionary manufacturing technology. Considering the high resolution and the relative density of specimens, the feasibility of fabricating highly accurate, small and intricate porous regolith parts such as catalysts, filters etc. will allow for a significant breakthrough in enabling long-duration human space exploration.

Silicon nitride turbocharger rotors are used to enhance the response of an engine. Using ceramic rotors instead of metal reduces their inertia and thus reduces deceleration. In addition, these rotors are exposed to very hot gas and so must be durable even under these extreme conditions. Until now, complicated components made of silicon nitride could not be manufactured due to the limitations of conventional machining processes. Thanks to their powerful LCM technology, Lithoz CeraFab 3D printers enable the production of complex-shaped rotors to improve the performance of microturbines.

Watch a video on thermal shock resistance testing for a 3D-printed silicon nitride component.

The LCM 3D printing process for ceramics enables the production of applications with the finest of details and highly complex internal structures while maintaining excellent surface quality. Some examples are micronozzles and valves with flow-optimized paths, miniature rotors and micro milling tools, electronic applications such as complex and precise substrates and medical sensors, instruments and surgical tools.

The industrial series production of complex ceramic components with microstructures requires a technology that meets every demand for high repeatability. Where conventional methods such as milling, drilling, grinding and ceramic injection molding clearly reach their limits, CeraFab printers offer scalable series production of parts with features as low as 100 µm.

Increasingly more stringent requirements for environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient aircraft engines call for more innovative turbines, which naturally require greatly improved cooling. With Lithoz's LCM technology, such functional and efficient components can finally be produced.

In addition to drastically reducing development time and thus speeding up time-to-market, it is possible to enable ever shorter development cycles, as the 3D printing of complex designed ceramic cores eliminates the need for expensive molds and lengthy changeovers. This efficiency makes LCM the perfect choice when it comes to producing innovative cast cores for the aerospace industry.

Researchers at the University of Leoben, working directly with Lithoz engineers, were able to achieve the highest strength of 1GPa in 3Dprinted alumina for the very first time.

Because the parts were 3D printed with different materials (using the multi-material approach), researchers were able to digitally control material placement to such a degree that these materials became even denser during sintering than alumina alone does (monolithic alumina, 650Mpa). They were able to leverage the layer-by-layer printing process to control residual stresses and effectively create a sort of "Gorilla alumina."

Read the full paper here.

The combination of metal-ceramic structures - in this case, PURE copper and alumina-based glass ceramics - enables new possibilities for 3D-printed circuit boards, electronic and telecommunication components, three-dimensional realization of conductive pathways and piezoelectric stacks or medical instruments.

Utilizing the CeraFab Multi in such applications opens the door to manufacturing even more complex structures with great potential for serial production, while simultaneously minimizing fabrication costs and shortening the entire process.