Ceramic 3D printing: Industry

15" LCM-Printed Semiconductor ALD Ring

This 15“ diameter alumina gas distribution ring was manufactured by Alumina Systems using Lithoz LCM technology. Alumina is used to ensure a constant gas flow and pressure even when using reactive gases. Capitalizing on the design freedom of Lithoz LCM technology, the part manufactured performed more effectively than conventionally produced rings thanks to a more complex design, allowing for an exceptionally lightweight and thinwalled structure. Material usage was reduced in key areas and the part could be manufactured onsite, making digital warehouses a reality and saving on storage costs.

12,000 tube guide elements per year for the DaVinci^TM Surgical Robot

This tube, produced by Steinbach AG in full-size industrial scale of 12,000 units per year, features a completely new geometry with a sharp bend and inner contours, minimal wall thicknesses of 200 μm, and perfectly smooth surfaces with roughness values of Ramax = 0.4 µm, at the required extremely narrow tolerance of +20 μm . The total diameter of the tube was determined by the construction of the robot arm, into which the tube had to fit.

Prior to the use of ceramic additive manufacturing, 3D-printed metal was considered by the customer, but the glass fibre strings introduced tore apart because of the insufficient surface roughness of the inner guiding channels quality. With a specific target for the manufacturing cost and a deadline of six months to begin serial production successfully met, this application impressively shows the CeraFab System S65’s talent to scale-up the production of ultra-precise parts to industrial mass production.

The Ceramic 3D Factory

With clear growing demand for ceramic 3D printing at an industrial scale across industries, the success of Lithoz’s partners and technology in serial production is becoming ever more visible. Lithoz will showcase the arrival of “The Ceramic 3D Factory”, uniting Lithoz technology and service bureaus all over the world in one global network for interconnected serial production across fields such as semiconductor production, aerospace and more. This global “Ceramic 3D Factory” network is strengthened by the new CeraControl software, which allows for up to 100 globally interconnected CeraFab S65 3D printers.

An impressive showcase of exactly 308 aerospike nozzles with identical designs at varying sizes demonstrates the industrial power of LCM technology. With 100 Lithoz CeraFab System S65 printers connected, the smallest parts shown could be manufactured with exact reproducibility at a printing speed of 3:46 minutes per part, resulting in an annual total volume of almost 14 million parts.

444 needles printed on a single platform

These needles were printed with LithaLox 360 and are excellent proof of just how precisely and efficiently Lithoz LCM technology is able to work. The clear objective of the project realized together with Bosch Advanced Ceramics was to maximise the loading of the CeraFab S65 platform filled with identical complex parts with fine structures.

Thanks to pinpoint precise dosage of the ceramic slurry and the use of the highest optical precision on the market, the CeraFab System printers could realize ultra-precise exposure at any point of the print platform, making it possible to build up extremely delicate parts and intricate inner structures without any mechanical pressure on the Z-axis. As a result, the proven stability of the system secures linear scalability to industrial mass production.