Our look at the most innovative 3D printing companies of the year continues with 3DPI Award nominee D3-AM.
Stefan Waldner, Chief Product Officer at D3-AM, provides more details about the company’s Micro-Particle Jetting (MPJ) and LAB II 3D printing system for processing water-based ceramic slurries via specialized inkjet printheads. MPJ enables the production of dense, high-quality ceramic components, including intricate designs and internal channels, with minimal organic content for more efficient thermal post-processing. The LAB II system, built on this technology, allows industries to leverage standard ceramic powders, promoting sustainability and reducing costs while maintaining exceptional material quality. D3-AM’s solution is scalable for mass production, addressing sectors like energy, aerospace, and semiconductors, where ceramics like silicon carbide (SiC) are vital for their durability and thermal properties. By combining expertise from the Durst Group with innovative design, the LAB II system supports near-net-shape production, reduces rework costs, and expands additive manufacturing’s potential for technical ceramics.
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3DPI: Can you describe your 3D printing innovation and how it differs from existing technologies in the market?
Stefan Waldner: D3-AM developed the Micro Particle Jetting (MPJ™) Technology, an innovative approach of processing water-based ceramic slurries through specially designed inkjet printheads. These printheads are uniquely engineered to handle aqueous suspensions with coarse and abrasive ceramic particles with diameters of up to 62 µm (D99), a capability that no other inkjet printhead technologies on the market can reliably match.
Additive manufacturing of technical ceramics is a delicate procedure, especially when it comes to thick-walled parts or dark ceramics like SSiC. The LAB II system, built on MPJ™ Technology, addresses these challenges, enabling the production of dense ceramic parts with an excellent microstructure. This is achieved using water-based suspensions, which require minimal organic content. As a result, the debinding process is significantly shortened, making thermal post-processing smoother and more efficient. Additionally, our system provides a powder-less work environment, ensuring a safer workspace for operators.
3DPI: What specific problem does your innovation solve, and what makes it a groundbreaking solution in the 3D printing space?
Stefan Waldner: In the LAB II system, commercially available ceramic powders are used and blended primarily with water and a small amount of sustainable additives. This approach enables traditional ceramic manufacturing industries to fully leverage the advantages of additive manufacturing while preserving familiar material quality and promoting a sustainable process.
The use of standard powders broadens the range of compatible materials, eliminating the need for specially milled powders or ultra-pure materials. This lowers the barrier to entry, as these widely available powders are well understood and make the technology economically viable.
The ability to produce ready-made components provides a significant advantage, reducing overall processing time and expense. Additionally, the design freedom offered by additive manufacturing allows for more complex geometries, including intricate shapes and internal channels, which are difficult to achieve with traditional methods.
3DPI: Which industries or sectors do you see your technology bringing the most benefits, and why?
Stefan Waldner: Technical ceramics are essential across industries that demand components capable of withstanding extreme environments. However, reworking ceramic components is often challenging, as their hardness makes it both time-consuming and costly. With the LAB II system and MPJ™ Technology, we offer a manufacturing approach that produces ready-to-use or near-net-shaped parts when higher precision is required—significantly reducing the costs associated with traditional methods, where substantial material removal may be necessary to achieve the desired shape.
Silicon carbide (SiC), for example, is ideally suited for the energy, semiconductor, aerospace, and aviation sectors due to its unique properties: low density, high hardness, chemical resistance, and excellent thermal conductivity. These characteristics make it particularly valuable in applications where high temperatures or aggressive media are involved.
3DPI: Is your 3D printing solution scalable for mass production, and if so, what steps have you taken to ensure scalability without compromising quality?
Stefan Waldner: MPJ™ Technology is fully scalable—a factor we considered from the company’s inception. D3, a corporate Start-up of the Durst Group, brings together experts from the ceramic printing industry, leveraging extensive experience in developing industrial machines capable of large-area tile structuring. This specialized expertise is now embodied in D3 and eventually transferred to the third dimension.
The LAB II machines are designed with flexibility in mind, allowing for an expandable build volume by integrating additional printheads or simply enlarging the build area. In the LARGE FORMAT version, the LAB II is capable of printing on a build platform of 480×400 mm, which is already notably large for dense technical ceramics. This scalability is backed by the D3 team’s deep technical knowledge and experience.
3DPI: What milestones have you achieved, and what are your next major goals?
Stefan Waldner: A major milestone for D3 was the launch of the LAB II system, which brings MPJ™ Technology directly to our customers. Using this system, we have already demonstrated the ability to produce pressureless sintered silicon carbide (SSiC) components with an exceptional microstructure. We have also succeeded in manufacturing thick components with a wall thickness of >20 mm, that withstand the sintering process without issues. This achievement shows us the potential of this technology — to enable the production of additively manufactured ceramic components with an unprecedented level of quality, both macroscopically and microscopically.
Looking ahead, we anticipate exciting applications for this technology across diverse industries. Our next major goals include establishing multiple LAB II systems across Europe and the USA to make this technology widely accessible. Additionally, we aim to strengthen collaborations within academia to drive research on new materials for the LAB II platform. To establish the LAB II system as a standard in the additive manufacturing industry, we will gradually expand its capabilities by implementing software and hardware features that enhance build quality and enable autonomous production.
3DPI: Can you say something about the development process behind your innovation, including key challenges and how they were overcome?
Stefan Waldner: It’s worth emphasizing that the D3 team has built extensive expertise in digital ceramic tile decoration within the Durst Group. In that field, material formulations are used that are similar to the ceramic slurries in a LAB II system, requiring the management of sediment-prone and abrasive materials – an inherent challenge in the MPJ™ process. Here, the team’s development experience was invaluable.
Developing MPJ™ technology from scratch, required assembling a specialized team of mechanical engineers, software developers, and materials scientists to ensure optimal alignment between material properties and processing methods for technical ceramics.
Thermal post-treatment is another essential aspect. We take a customer-oriented approach, recognizing that our clients are experts in technical ceramics and sintering. To support a seamless, end-to-end process, we work closely with industry partners and universities to build a fully integrated process chain.
3DPI: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Stefan Waldner: We are seeing the increased use of additively manufactured components made of technical ceramics if material properties and overall part quality are excellent. However, there are still few additive manufacturing technologies that enable functionally customized components with these properties. This is exactly where MPJ™ technology comes in: Offering a manufacturing method for industry relevant components of technical ceramics.
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Featured image shows a 3D printed heat exchanger highlighting the freeform capabilities of MPJ™ technology. Image by D3-AM.
