Light-weight 3D printed plate-setters are coming

The way potters and hobbyists traditionally pack electric kilns is the height of energy wastage. This 18x22 hexagonal kiln load of bowls is a good example. A traditional pack on the left does 24. The new method using 3D printed setters on the right does 36. The left firing contains only 5.3 kg of bowls with more than 60kg of furniture - each 220g bowl incurs 2700g (6 lb) of kiln furniture weight - seven times as much! This type of packing also leads to uneven firing and puts a heavy load on the electrical components. The bigger the kiln the greater the efficiency.

These light-weight stackable setters don't exist yet. But they soon will. I designed specifically for this bowl and printed samples using PLA. Sintered alumina, the ultimate material, has 3x density over PLA - so we can predict the weight at 160g. These setters allow free flow of air, even the foot of the bowl is exposed. They can be printed upside down with one pass of the nozzle for most of the geometry.

New uV hardened resins for dental applications are the inspiration for this idea. These resins and hardeners are commodity items online now, anyone with a clay 3D printer (or the ability to retrofit an existing PLA printer) can experiment with recipes (even of inexpensive refractory materials like kaolin, ball clay silica) and print these.

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Dental 3D printing has achieved the holy grail: uV hardening

Cutting-edge ceramic 3D printing is happening in dental! The focus is not primarily on the printers, attention is going into the paste. They are calling it "the resin" because acrylic resin is the likely medium. Pure alumina powder is being used (also pure silica). Imagine having a pure alumina tooth! What temperature does it take to fire these (and burn out the photopolymer network)? 1600C! They are achieving high percentages (likely 70%+) of the powder in an acrylic resin base and yet the slurry is very fluid (so it can be printed in a very narrow extrusion) and has minimal fired shrinkage. They are adding uV hardeners, this enables solidifying the material as soon as it leaves the printer nozzle. Data sheets specify exactly what uV wave length is needed. The key to the success of these efforts is meticulous lab work to perfect and adapt already established processes and materials. This material-centric lead could be adapted to so many other branches of ceramic fabrication and so many other materials could be made into resins. Another exciting area is investment casting. Thin ceramic shells are being printed and molten metal poured in to get shapes never before possible.

Links

URLs	https://www.prodways.com/material/alumina-photx-a100-a110/ ALUMINA PHOTX A100 3D printing resin by SINTX They claim >60% solids and cures quickly under 365nm light. They claim low viscosity, no settling, high green strength and minimal densification on sintering at 1650C. Used for printing electronics, tubing, sheets, bars, rods, discs wear-resistant coatings, biomedical, etc.
URLs	https://www.amazon.ca/UV-Resin/s?k=UV+Resin uV Resin for making 3D printing pastes - at Amazon Crystal clear UV curing resin from many suppliers that claim them to be low odor. uV lights are also available.
URLs	https://www.prodways.com/ Prodways, from France, MOVINGLight® DLP technology ceramic 3D printers They claim high precision for prototyping and making molds and casts (e.g. investment casting). Machines are designed to work seamlessly with SILICA SICAST 1200 and ALUMINA A100 resins from SINTX Technologies
URLs	https://www.arkema.com/global/en/products/product-finder/product-range/sartomer/n3xt-dimension-3d-printing/ N3xtDimension® solutions for UV-curable 3D printing Resins for additive manufacturers to produce UV-curable 3D printing pastes for applications such as medical, dental, electronics and sporting goods.
URLs	https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=retrofit+3d+printer+for+clay Retrofitting a consumer PLA 3D printer as a clay printer Kits, tutorials and instructions, parts lists, firmware, downloadable 3D printable print heads and more.
Glossary	3D Printing Clay Clay for 3D printing. People are getting carried away with the technology and forgetting the common sense things relating to the clay.

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