Abstract
Initial attempts to realise a ceramic manufacturing process for micro-engineering where fine particles are deposited one at a time at high speed, with their destination controlled by computer are described. The powder used was zirconia with ultimate particles in the 0.2 micron region as detected by TEM. It was dispersed in a mixture of 60 vol% butyl acetate and 40 vol% ethanol. The results suggest that a continuous stream of fine droplets of ultimately dispersed suspension, from which dense ceramic can be sintered, is capable of being produced. The speed of deposition from a single nozzle is extremely slow (0.2 g/h of zirconia) but this is a direct consequence of the high resolution and must be addressed by the careful design of multi-nozzle devices. 9 refs.