Conventionally, ceramics components are fabricated by sintering powder compacts produced by pressing, casting, or injection molding; however, structures with complex geometries are difficult to produce, due to equipment and mold design limitations. A possible solution came up with the evolution of Additive Manufacturing (AM). Additive manufacturing has the potential to fabricate complex, near-net-shape parts. Additive manufacturing of ceramics is less common, though a wide variety of technologies such as ceramic stereolithography, binder jetting, direct ink writing etc. can be utilized to fabricate the desired components.
 

Our interest falls particularly in direct ink writing (DIW) of BaTiO3 which is one of the most widely used functional ceramics that finds its application in positive temperature coefficient (PTC) resistors, multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), ferroelectric memories and dielectric capacitors due to its peculiar electric properties. Appropriate shaping of BaTiO₃ allows for the tailoring of such properties to the specific application needs. An ink with very high solid loading and limited binder content was optimized with desirable rheological properties so that it can be extruded through nozzles with a diameter of 0.40 mm or more. Porous, log-pile structures were printed using a commercially available 3D printing machine (Delta Wasp 2040 Turbo 2). Thereafter, the green body was dried at room temperature for a few hours before sintering. Several sintering strategies have been used to sinter crack-free, dense components. In particular, the coupling of DIW with field assisted sintering allows for further tailoring of the material microstructure and grain size, with a direct influence on different properties.