Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories installs second CeraFab S65
Sandia National Laboratories has installed its second ceramic 3D printer from Lithoz as it ramps up R&D and production of ceramic components with complex geometries.
The second CeraFab LCM machine is expected to build on Sandia’s existing work 3D printing ‘next-generation parts’ which can be produced within a single week versus months at a tenth of the cost of traditional production methods. The organisation, which sits within the U.S. Department of Energy, says this is an entirely new material for its subcomponents and presents opportunities for design flexibility and could potentially ‘unlock completely new applications.’
“By combining LCM technology with the attractive material properties of AM ceramic, Sandia have already opened the door to printing ceramic shapes and parts previously impossible to produce,” said Shawn Allan, Vice President of Lithoz America. “We look forward to seeing their future achievements with the greater capacity of a second Lithoz printer.”
Lithoz’s CeraFab S65 system is based on the Austrian company’s Lithography based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM) process and is designed to enable manufacturers to scale into industrial mass production. The machine features a build envelope of 102 x 64 x 320 mm and is capable of printing up to 150 layers per hour at a lateral resolution of 40µm and layer thicknesses between 10-100µm.
Earlier this year, the UK’s Manufacturing Technology Centre installed its own CeraFab S65 in an effort to drive ceramic 3D printing for industrial end users in the UK, while bioceramic materials manufacturer Himed opened a new Bioceramics Center of Excellence in partnership with Lithoz to enable a holistic approach to R&D for medical device manufacturers. Lithoz recorded a 30% increase in sales of its 3D printers throughout 2023 compared with the previous year.
