Water-soluble sacrificial 3D printed molds for fast prototyping in ceramic injection molding

Fabrication of steel molds is a major expense (time and cost) in ceramic injection molding research development. 3D printed resin for fast prototyping are therefore highly attractive have gained increasing attention. This paper reports strategies to use sacrificial by fused deposition modeling (FDM) from PVA or digital light processing (DLP) water soluble resin. Usage allows complex geometries, which not accessible simple two-part molds. Ceramic heating elements diverse geometries were molded using composite feedstock containing MoSi2, Al2O3 feldspar. More parts with various produced feedstock. A comparison revealed that DLP better suited very small structural features due the higher resolution process as compared FDM. Finally, heaters fabricated two-component successfully tested.