XJet offers alumina for ceramic Additive Manufacturing
August 19, 2021
XJet Ltd, Rehovot, Israel, has added alumina (aluminium oxide) to its portfolio of commercially available Additive Manufacturing materials. This compound was chosen for development because of its wide use as a technical ceramic and the market demand to see parts manufactured with the benefits of XJet NanoParticle Jetting™ (NPJ) production.
The alumina has been successfully tested over the course of a few months by a customer in the USA. In conjunction with rigorous dialogue and testing with the industry, the decision to introduce alumina into the XJet repertoire fits the business’ desire to bring the benefits of AM into the world of ceramics.
“As alumina is the most widely used technical ceramic, and the most cost-effective, it made perfect sense to introduce that as our second ceramic material after zirconia,” stated Dror Danai, CBO.
Offering extremely high mechanical strength, high hardness as well as very good electrical insulation, alumina also has high wear resistance, high thermal conductivity and resistance to high temperatures. Both alumina and zirconia are technical ceramics with very good resistance to chemicals (non-corrosive) and are great insulators.
Now that these ceramics are compatible with XJet’s AM machines, manufacturers can use the company’s technology to capitalise on the benefits of AM, creating parts with complex geometries and internal cavities that were not previously possible. XJet states that its NanoParticle Jetting technology, with its use of soluble support material, can manufacture extremely accurate near-net-shape parts with ultra-fine detail and smooth surfaces.
Sample parts made from alumina will be displayed by XJet at several upcoming ceramics and AM shows, including Ceramics Expo, Rapid+TCT and Formnext.
