News Items - Ceramic 3D printing sets a new production standard. XJet shows how one industry at a time

Somewhere in a cleanroom in Ohio, USA, spinal implants are being 3D printed in technical ceramics. Elsewhere in Switzerland, watch components are being printed in batches. And in another facility, a 3-in-1 fluid management part is being produced with a precision that traditional manufacturing could not achieve. The common thread across these applications? Not only can they be produced with technical ceramics but the technology behind them can deliver these parts in a consistent and repeatable way. Yet technical ceramics are still as unforgiving as they’ve always been. What changed today is the production logic behind them. XJet is now showing us what this production logic looks like, and how it can be applied vertically, one industry at a time.

For decades, ceramics have sat at the intersection of impossibility and indispensability. Not only were they positioned as a niche technology, but their manufacturing was also defined by two compromises, forcing AM users to choose between design freedom without serial production volume, or good resolution at the expense of consistent surface quality.