In the wide array of additive-manufacturing technologies (AM) available today, binder jetting stands on its own for the ability to combine the flexibility and part complexity typical of AM processes with a productivity rate unmatched by other AM technologies.

Developed from an MIT patent in the early 1990s, binder jetting (BJT) is a powder-bed-based process where, contrary to powder-bed-fusion technologies such as SLM and EBM, the material is compacted through the selective deposition of a liquid binder instead of melting. That means binder jetting is able to process a wide array of materials, including ceramics and polymers, even though the spotlight in the last few years has been on the BJT production of metal parts. To achieve their final strength and density, metal BJT-printed parts then rely on sintering inside a furnace (Fig. 1).