Would like to have a ceramic extruding module. Is it possible? I don’t like plastic, bad for the environment. Would like to think about an idea where we can just go to the backyard; dig up some clay and use it.
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There was another discussion on this topic here:
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… and I know I am repeating myself but I really want a chocolate extruder & build plate kit for the Snapmaker 
Thanks for pointing that out. I am not interested in other clay extruder. I would prefered to see snapmaker grow by adding another module. Do you know anything about it? is snapmaker considering adding it? or it is impossible to add clay module.
Yeap. There is so much you can make out of clay or something like chocolate. These type of material can be acquired any where.
I have not seen any hint about new types of modules. Their roadmap only shows a dual extruder and more powerful laser coming up. But they suggest making feature requests via support@snapmaker.com.
While not new but zirconium dioxide (zirconia) printing is very difficult. What they are trying to do is mix ZrO2 in a slurry and extrude it and then fire it. Large amounts of shrinkage will happen due to their method of delivery which has excessive moisture in the mix. To Do it right you need a ZrO2 Low Moisture Slurry deposition machine. I have seen a large lab machine in Cleveland Ohio (were talking $ Millions of Dollars for this. That can print ZrO2 and has much smaller amounts of shrinkage than the other method. But the technology is expensive and is multiple steps. (1) Print 3d object, (2) Put part in Dehydrator to remove as much moisture from slurry as possible, (3) Fire the resulting object to bond it together. If you watch the YouTube video for Tronxy it does work but fine details are still a ways away with this method of LDM. The machine I saw in action has the slurry mixing at all times right up to head nozzle so it’s flowing in the feed tube and then is extracted to keep the mix perfect. Supports were also included for overhangs. I’m not seeing a method on the Tronxy for support material so we will see what will be possible with this delivery method.
I think it’s cool and the clay material looks cool as you can mix colors also.
It’s amazing what tech is coming out lately…
Ceramic is SO 2020:
Engineered whole cut meat-like tissue by the assembly of cell fibers using tendon-gel integrated bioprinting
"Since the tendon is a key tissue for the muscle fiber alignment and maturation, we fabricated tendon gels by TIP to enable their consecutive connection with the muscle cell fibers, inducing the formation of aligned matured muscle fibers. In this study, a total of 72 fibers comprising 42 muscle, 28 adipose, and 2 blood capillaries were constructed by TIP. They were subsequently assembled to fabricate steak-like meat with a diameter of 5 mm and a length of 10 mm inspired by the histological images of an actual Wagyu beef steak. "
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