Experimental Protocols for Polymeric Binder Selection in the Binder Jetting of Metallic Particles in Three-Dimensional Printing

Binder-jet printing is an advanced manufacturing technique where the alternating deposition of a metal powder bed, then printing of a polymeric binder are repeated until a three-dimensional part is formed. The resulting piece is called green body. It is composed of powder particles held together by the binder. To obtain a pure metallic part, the piece must be treated thermally to pyrolyze the polymer and to sinter the powder particles. It is one of the most promising metal 3D printing techniques. However, the selection of binders is often approached by trial and error, which leads to poor green bodies strength, causes high production loses and decreases the printing process capacity to produce delicate features.