3DCeram Sinto and Avignon Ceramic detail ceramic 3D printing partnership for aerospace foundry cores
Hardware
Originally reported by VoxelMatters
3DCeram Sinto, the Limoges-based ceramic additive manufacturing specialist, and Avignon Ceramic have released a video detailing their ongoing partnership in ceramic 3D printing. The collaboration focuses on producing complex foundry cores for aerospace applications, specifically geometries that injection molding could not achieve. The video showcases how 3DCeram Sinto's proprietary C1000 FLEXMATIC and C900 FLEXMATIC systems, using alumina and zirconia-based photopolymerizable ceramic pastes, enable Avignon Ceramic to manufacture intricate core designs for investment casting of turbine blades and structural components.
This partnership exemplifies the quiet but critical role ceramic AM is playing in the aerospace supply chain, where the technology solves a specific manufacturing bottleneck rather than replacing entire production lines. Unlike metal PBF-LB, which dominates aerospace AM headlines for direct part production, ceramic stereolithography (a variant of vat photopolymerization) addresses the tooling and casting side of the value chain. The collaboration fits the pattern of AM success that disappears from marketing language precisely when it succeeds - once the ceramic core design is embedded in a casting workflow, the 3D printing step becomes infrastructure, not a headline. For 3DCeram Sinto, now a subsidiary of Sintokogio, this aerospace reference strengthens its position in a niche where few competitors (Lithoz, Prodways) operate, and where qualification cycles are long but lock-in is deep.
For buyers evaluating ceramic AM for investment casting, the practical takeaway is that the technology is production-ready for complex core geometries but remains a specialized tool, not a general-purpose replacement for conventional ceramic injection molding. 3DCeram Sinto and Avignon Ceramic must continue to demonstrate repeatable quality across multiple casting campaigns, as aerospace foundries require statistical process control data, not just one-off success videos. The partnership's value will be measured by how many production programs adopt these cores, not by the novelty of the demonstration.
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