Freeze-form extrusion fabrication of functionally graded materials

Presented in this paper is a novel additive manufacturing technology for making three-dimensional parts with functionally graded materials (FGMs), called Freeze-form Extrusion Fabrication (FEF). The system development included a triple-extruder mechanism, extruder modeling and control, pastes extrusion planning for desired composition gradients, and software coding for motion and extrusion control. The effectiveness of the developed FEF system was demonstrated first by fabricating limestone (CaCO3) parts with graded colors and then by fabricating ‘green’ parts with graded compositions between alumina (Al2O3) and zirconia (ZrO2). The fabricated part went through post-processing, and the sintered part was analyzed using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) to determine its material compositions.