A team of researchers led by Leah Buechly has developed CeraMetal, a new method for 3D printing metal parts. The process combines elements of ceramic printing with metal pastes, enabling the cost-effective production of bronze objects.
The basis is a special metal paste consisting of 100 g bronze powder, 0.17 g methyl cellulose, 0.33 g xanthan gum and 9 g water. The exact amount of water is adjusted to achieve the optimum consistency.
A modified ceramic printer is used for printing. This has a pressure-controlled paste feed and a screw for extrusion. Linen is used as the printing bed. Buechly developed customised slicing software that works in “vase mode” but also generates filling structures. This was necessary because conventional slicer programs caused problems with the start-stop behaviour during paste printing.
After printing, the object is embedded in activated carbon and sintered in an oven. The result is a 3D-printed bronze part whose material costs are mainly determined by the metal powder.
The use of metal pastes, also known as “metal clay”, is already widespread in jewellery production. The researchers have now adapted this technique for 3D printing.
You can read more about this process in the paper “CeraMetal: A New Approach to Low-Cost Metal 3D Printing with Bronze Clay“.
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