Scheithauer, UweUweScheithauerJohne-Michaelis, RobertRobertJohne-MichaelisWeingarten, StevenStevenWeingartenSchwarzer, EricEricSchwarzerRichter, Hans-JürgenHans-JürgenRichterMoritz, TassiloTassiloMoritzMichaelis, AlexanderAlexanderMichaelis2022-03-052022-03-052018https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/24972610.1007/s11665-017-2875-4Thermoplastic 3D printing (T3DP) is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology, which can be used for the production of dense single- and especially multi-materialcomponents. This becomes possible because of the combination of the precise deposition of small droplets of molten thermoplastic suspensions containing ceramic or metal particles and a curing mechanism caused on cool down increasing the viscosity. In this paper the droplet formation behavior of zirconia suspensions for T3DP (82 wt.-% and 84 wt.-%) was investigated. The droplet fusion factor (dff) is introduced to calculate the necessary distance between two droplets to form filament like structures by fusion of adjacent droplets. Filament-like structures with a smooth surface and a nearly homogeneous cross-section were manufactured for both suspensions with a dff of 44 % or less.enAdditive FertigungThermoplastischer 3D-DruckKeramikZirkonoxidTropfenbildungFilamentbildungsfaktorAdditive manufacturingthermoplastic 3D printingCeramicZirconiaDroplet formationDroplet fusion factorCerAMfacturing620journal article