Technical ceramics keep on working when a lot of other materials fail. If a part needs to be in a very hot or very chemically abrasive environment, or if you need incredibly high abrasion resistance, then technical ceramics will continue to work where polymers and metals would have long since failed. In a lot of applications, they're lighter, as well, and have great properties for very specific uses. But, of all the materials, technical ceramics are the bastard stepchildren of the materials world. Misunderstood and unloved they are underutilized.

One person who wishes to change this is Guillaume de Calan of Nanoe. Nanoe makes ceramic filaments for desktop machines and a number of other ceramics besides. Max and I were charmed by Guillaume's deep knowledge of ceramics and the way he qualifies everything he says and is very realistic. We talk with Guillaume about sintering, binder jet, the use of desktop 3D printers for print ceramic parts, and many of the issues, as well as opportunities, with ceramics as well. At the end of it all, I think that this 3DPOD can really help you learn a lot more about ceramic materials and processes that could help you solve your problems.