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At the joint Fraunhofer booth (Hall 11.0, Booth D31), Fraunhofer IKTS will showcase its expertise in adapting additive manufacturing processes for ceramic materials and hybridizing components made of multiple materials.
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
November 17, 2026 - November 20, 2026
Due to their properties - high modulus of elasticity, high hardness and high strength - ceramic materials are known to be suitable for protective equipment and armor in the defense and security sector. Fraunhofer IKTS offers several variants of additive shaping processes known as CerAMfacturing, in which complex components can be produced in small or medium quantities by hybridizing materials or processes. Of particular interest are lightweight equipment of high hardness made of SiC and B4C for passive body armor. Additive Manufacturing methods for the production of large-volume components, such as powder-bed-based binder jetting (BJT) and material-extruding fused filament fabrication (FFF), are used for this purpose. Diamond/SiC composites, which are the main focus of ongoing developments, offer particularly good ballistic protection.
Harsh environmental conditions with high thermal, chemical, and/or mechanical stresses are a challenge in almost all areas of industry. Highly integrated sensor systems with metallic or polymer components reach their limits here and make real-time data acquisition difficult. Functionalized 3D ceramic components, on the other hand, meet the requirements for robustness, miniaturization, and reliability. Through the targeted selection of materials and a combination of additive manufacturing and thick-film technology, they combine chemical and thermal resistance, high hardness, low density, or specific biological properties with highly complex geometries for the first time.
Based on the combination of ceramic vat photopolymerization (CerAM VPP) and freeze foaming, precisely fitting, mechanically stable bone replacement materials have been developed for use as load-bearing jawbones. The hybrid bone consists of additively manufactured, load-bearing support struts filled with porous foam. As a result of animal testing in the lower jaw, a generic hybrid implant has now been developed as a demonstrator for the pig jaw.
In order to meet the constantly growing demand for more efficient and cost-effective components in the aerospace sector, the focus is increasingly being placed on the additive manufacturing of complex functionalized components made of high-performance materials. With the Multi Material Jetting technology at Fraunhofer IKTS, a large number of different combinations of properties can be realized in a single component in a single production step. This enables the additive manufacturing of electrically functional, fully ceramic multi-material components, for example, various heating and ignition elements.
A wide range of technical value-added processes relies on the precise temperature control of process materials or chemical reagents. Highly dynamic and actively cooled matrix heaters are ideal for this purpose, as they enable rapid temperature changes. These heaters consist of individual pixels that are combined into a matrix. The additive manufacturing processes developed at Fraunhofer IKTS represent “game changers” in this context, as they enable the realization of complex geometries with high precision and features - such as cooling channels - in small volumes. This results in expanded geometric degrees of freedom and entirely new areas of application, such as in medical technology or for Industry 4.0.
Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS