High Temperature Insulator using Casted Ceramic for Collaborative Robotic Gripper in Additive Manufacturing*

In high temperature applications such as metal additive manufacturing, and casting, one of the barriers to automation is end effector tooling. One specific issue is with ceramic machining; it is a challenging task that makes it difficult to fabricate new tooling. Our solution is to circumvent the machining process entirely and use an aluminum oxide cast ceramic for use in high temperature collaborative robotic grippers. We developed a custom procedure to create complex features in casted ceramic using 3D printed molds. We have achieved features of through holes and counterbores with approximately 2 hours of active processing, and have characterized the materials properties for our casting conditions as follows: thermal conductivity of 5.123 W/mK, ultimate compressive strength of 45.47 MPa, modulus of rupture of 20.5 MPa, and a porosity of 6.51%. This will allow for rapid fabrication of end effector tooling, custom fit to each individual application, with high performance in extreme applications.