3D printing with special materials

3D printing with special materials brings together a heterogeneous family of additive technologies that extend additive manufacturing well beyond conventional polymers, working with pastes, mixtures and materials of entirely different natures. The common principle is the controlled extrusion or deposition of a plastic material in a semi-fluid state — clay, cement mix, chocolate, sugar paste — which solidifies through drying, cooling or subsequent firing rather than through thermal fusion or photopolymerisation.

Applications cover radically different fields: clay and ceramic printing enables the creation of artistic objects and prototypes for industrial ceramic production; concrete printing opens up prospects in large-scale construction and parametric architecture; food printing finds use in avant-garde catering and in the production of customised food for specific dietary needs.

These technologies share a requirement for highly specialised machines — often custom-built or niche products — and a material-dependent post-processing stage (kiln firing for clay and ceramics, curing for concrete). Control of the material's rheology is the critical factor determining the quality and repeatability of the result.