Abstract
The issue of the low ceramic volume loading currently used in ceramic inks for direct jet-printing applications, such as plasma spraying, was addressed. Judicious additions of a second, finer zirconia powder were made to the submicrometer zirconia suspensions that are conventionally used in direct ceramic jet-printing applications. Various amounts of oligomeric dispersant were added to the ceramic suspensions. The sediment packing densities and the viscosities of the suspensions were recorded. The highest gravitational sediment-packing densities occurred when 2.5–3 wt% of dispersant was used. This corresponded well with the minimum ink viscosity of 8 mPa·s that occurs at the same level of dispersant. Bimodal ceramic ink was formulated based on these observations. The ceramic volume loading of the ink was increased by 250% (i.e., from 2 to 5 vol%) using a bimodal size distribution. This ink was injected into a plasma flame using a continuous ink-jet printer. The splats produced were comparable, although significantly smaller, to those produced by conventional plasma spraying.
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