Development of photo-curable ceramic suspensions usable for additive manufacturing combined with freeze foaming

The advantages of suspension based Additive Manufacturing (AM), e.g. the lithography-based ceramic manufacturing (LCM), are high structural resolution and the manufacturing of dense (>99%) ceramic components allowing high performance compared to other available AM techniques. This comparatively young technique permits innovative constructional designs, new types of ceramic components, and in doing so, offers a wide range of new applications like micro reactors, catalyst supporting structures or heat exchangers, but also novel biomedical devices, bone replacement materials and implants. Today, the commercially available material portfolio in LCM is restricted to alumina, zirconia and tricalcium phosphate, which limits the dissemination of the process. To open the door to novel applications, new photo-curable suspension of zirconia and hydroxyapatite as well as mixtures of both materials suitable for LCM were developed. The advantages of AM were then combined with another shaping method, the Freeze Foaming. As result, first specimen of each material were achieved which, also in material combination, feature a dense outer and a porous inner structure in one single component.