Approaches Used to Design Support Structures for Ceramic Additive Manufacturing: A Review

Owing to the developments in the aerospace, semiconductor, nuclear energy, and other fields, there is an increasing demand for complex-shaped ceramic components with specific characteristics such as high-temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, high rigidity, and high strength. Although additive manufacturing (AM), a prime technology for manufacturing complex ceramic components, has received increasing attention from researchers and producers, AM of ceramic components faces various challenges including deformation, cracking, and significant shrinkage in terms of shape, size accuracy, and performance control. These challenges significantly limit the application and development of AM. Support structures, an essential element in AM, not only ensure the formation of components but also play a crucial role in minimizing the shrinkage and deformation of components during the high-temperature sintering operation. In this article, commonly used support structures in current ceramic additive manufacturing processes are reviewed and classified into contact supports, contactless supports, support-free techniques, and combined supports. Subsequently, the relationship between ceramic AM processes and support types is discussed. Furthermore, this article summarizes the research progress in support optimization from two perspectives: printing direction and support structure optimizations. Accordingly, it proposes a support design approach from the perspective of the entire process flow and concludes by outlining future development directions in ceramic support design.