Organization/Department 
Head of Material Development at Lithoz GmbH  

Biography 
Martin Schwentenwein has a background in photopolymerization chemistry from TU Wien. After finishing his PhD thesis on “Development of Tough Photopolymers for Lithography-based Additive Manufacturing Technologies” he joined the startup Lithoz in 2012 as materials developer and built up the R&D team there. Today, he acts as Head of Materials Development and R&D coordinator of Lithoz GmbH.  

Title of Talk 
Lithography-based ceramic manufacturing for fabricating multi-material components 

Abstract 
This contribution explores the extension of lithography-based additive manufacturing technologies towards combining different ceramic materials in one printed component. Using multi-material combinations in 3D printing is garnering widespread attention due to the wide range of possibilities that it provides to realize parts which are more functional and have improved properties. The presented multi-material printing approach uses two different photocurable ceramic suspensions that are drawn from different vats with a cleaning step between switching from one material to the other. Using this approach it is not only possible to combine different ceramics in different layers of the printed component, but also the combination within the same layer. First successful trials that will be presented within this contribution include the combination of alumina and zirconia-toughened zirconia, alumina and zirconia, as well as zirconia and hydroxyapatite, respectively. These initial results show that this technological approach holds great potential to path the way from classical single material structures to bi-material components and subsequently multi-material and functionally-graded ceramics. In addition to the presentation of the general feasibility of manufacturing multi-ceramic components using lithography-based additive manufacturing, this contribution will also focus on first actual applications by showcasing how the lithography-based ceramic manufacturing technology can be used to design high strength alumina ceramics by employing the multi-material approach.