Optimization of Printing Parameters for Extrusion 3D Printing of Ceramic Clay

With substantial advancements in the additive manufacturing (AM) of polymers and metals in the last few decades, the AM of ceramic material has recently gained research traction. Manufacturing complex ceramic parts is an extremely challenging process that can be revolutionized by AM. While many industrial-grade expensive AM systems are available for printing ceramic parts, the use of inexpensive desktop-type extrusion AM systems for ceramic parts is particularly challenging, which mandates printing parameter optimization. In this paper, the printing parameters of an inexpensive extrusion AM system, such as layer height, line width, extrusion speed, infill, and flow percentage, were optimized, which resulted in ceramic parts with desired qualities in terms of part density. For this, Clay Body 370 was chosen to produce clay with different percentages of water content ranging from 5% to 15%. Printed samples were subjected to sintering in a furnace to sinter at 1100 °C, followed by shrinkage and weight loss measurements. Finally, the printing parameters that resulted in good surface quality and less dimensional shrinkage with higher compression strength were reported.