Ink‐Jet Printing of Wax‐Based Alumina Suspensions

Abstract

Suspensions of fine alumina powder in a paraffin wax have been successfully formulated with viscosity values sufficiently low to allow ink‐jet printing using a commercial printer. A commercial‐grade paraffin wax, with stearylamine and a polyester, were used as the dispersant system. Suspensions with powder loadings up to 40 vol% were passed through the ink‐jet printer head. Unfired ceramic bodies with a feature size of <100 μm have been successfully fabricated with waxes that had a powder loading of 30 vol%. The influence of suspension fluid properties on the ink‐jet printing process has been studied, and the importance of the acoustic resonance within the ink‐jet printing apparatus has been demonstrated.