The Israel Innovation Authority’s MEIMAD committee, a joint venture between the Innovation Authority, the Ministry of Finance, and the Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure of the Ministry of Defense, has approved a budget of NIS 1.4 million (about $372,000) for the project, which will involve the development of inkjet 3D printing technology for advanced ceramic materials. Ceramics are ideal for aerospace components because of their mechanical strength and high thermal resistance, but ceramic parts are expensive and time-consuming to produce, plus they don’t lend themselves to the creation of complex structures with current production methods.
All of that changes when 3D printing is brought into the equation. 3D printed ceramics are fairly new, and ceramic inkjet printing even more so. In November, XJet announced that they had developed a brand new ceramic 3D printing technology based on their pioneering NanoParticle Jetting metal 3D printing technology. The introduction of their ceramic inkjet printing method was big news, as it’s completely different from the typical extrusion-based ceramic printers we’ve seen so far.
So what will Nano Dimension’s ceramic inkjet process look like? That remains to be seen, of course, but the technology that makes the inkjet-based DragonFly 2020 so effective for electronics has great potential for ceramic materials. The DragonFly’s multimaterial capabilities, speed, and high printing resolution are just a few of the highlights that make the technology ideal for adaptation to ceramics – and, in fact, ceramics can be used as a dielectric material in 3D printed PCBs, further improving them, as the insulation and mechanical strength properties of ceramic are much better than those of the materials currently used in the PCB industry.
The benefits of ceramics go beyond their aforementioned characteristics: they also stand out for their elasticity, plasticity, shear strength, tensile strength, compressive strength, and more, making them ideal for the manufacture of everything from structural and building materials to textiles. It’s not surprising that the aerospace industry has taken such an interest in 3D printed ceramics, and MEIMAD is wise to capitalize on the technology through the expertise of Nano Dimension. The Israel Innovation Authority will be financing 50% of the total budget for the project, with the agreement that Nano Dimension will pay royalties on any future sales of the funded technology.
MEIMAD’s goal is to promote advanced dual-use technologies for military, defense, and commercial research and development purposes, bolstering both national security and financial profit at the same time. Discuss in the Nano Dimension forum at 3DPB.com.