3D printing

By 3d ceramic printing, we mean the creation of volumes from extruded clay, for the production of pieces and objects that must be fired at a temperature of at least 950°C to acquire their final state. For those who are not familiar with the ceramic vocabulary, see the his Ceramic Glossary of our friend Pierre Bastarache. It should be noted that, as long as it is not fired, the clay can be reused ad infinitum, which leaves a great deal of freedom for testing or rapid prototyping.

Printers
On a 2d printer (desktop printer), the printhead moves on a flat x and y surface.
With a 3d printer the 3° dimension (thickness, volume) is added on a vertical axis, the z-axis.
Whatever the printer, 3 parts must be distinguished :

the machine itself,
the matter that feeds it,
and the necessary instructions for its operation.

In the case of a paper printer, it is necessary to :

a word processor,
paper, ink
and a driver (software) that will manage all the information required to produce the printed page: the text, its body, colour, layout, etc.

In the case of a 3d printer, you need :

a 3d model, designed on an appropriate software,
material (plastic, powders, etc.). For us will be clay.
a driver (software) which will manage all the information essential for the manufacture of the object by controlling the movement of the print head on the 3 axes x, y and z

There are more and more printer models, some of which are very affordable.

So, are you ready?
We are going to look at :

3d printing
the model
the extrusion issue
collaborative sites
precursors
commercial proposals
creativity
and 3d, one more tool ?

A lot of information on the web is in English.
Fortunately, machine translation systems come to our aid.
However, be careful with approximate translations, as French ceramic terms do not always have their exact equivalent in English (see Ceramic Glossary).
This free translator Deepl that we believe gives the best results: