Lay Ceramic pellets (in powder) - Kai Parthy

The Lay Ceramic pellets, developed by engineer Kai Parthy, are part of the Lay Filaments brand, known for its specialized and functional 3D printing materials. These pellets come in the format of very fine sinterable powder that consists of a polymeric binder combined with modified clay powder. Due to their tiny particle size distribution ranging from 0.05 to 1.5 mm the Lay Ceramic pellets have the appearance of powder but are designed to be used with pellet extruders or pellet 3D printers such as Tumaker rather than SLS 3D printers.

Image 1: The Lay Ceramic powder from Kai Parthy. Source: Lay Filaments.

The composition of the Lay Ceramic powder allows for easy flow through a funnel to an extruder screw, making it ideal for creating parts that can later be fully converted to ceramic. The powder offers a wide printing temperature range of 180-260 ºC, ensuring flexibility in various 3D printing setups.

Image 2: Parts 3D printed with the Lay Ceramic powder before and after post-processing. Source: Lay Filaments.

Once the part is printed, a debinding process at 250-500 ºC is necessary to remove the polymeric binder. Following this, the part undergoes sintering at 1050 ºC to achieve its final ceramic form. Designers should account for a kiln shrinkage of approximately 35%, as the part will reduce in size during the sintering process.

Image 3: From left to right, part 3D printed with the Lay Ceramic powder after debinding, sintering and enameling. Source: Lay Filaments.

Initially brown in color, the printed object transforms to resemble white clay after the binder is burned off. Additionally, the sintered ceramic part can be further refined with post-processing techniques such as enameling at temperatures above 1000 ºC.

Detailed extrusion, debinding and sintering instructions as well as advice on part design can be found in the Manual in the Attachments section.