Predicting ceramic colloidal suspension stability for extrusion-based additive manufacturing

A process for selecting solvents and/or additives in a ceramic colloidal suspension for an extrusion based additive manufacturing process, the process comprising:

• measuring T1 relaxation times for mixtures comprising different solvents or additives with a ceramic by proton nuclear magnetic resonance, wherein each mixture comprises a ceramic-solvent pairing or a ceramic-additive pairing or a ceramic-additive-solvent pairing;
• determining a relaxation rate and a relaxation number for each mixture from the T1 relaxation times and ranking the relaxation numbers for each mixture based on an observed interaction, wherein the ranking for the observed interaction of a strong affinity has a lower rank than the observed interaction of a weaker affinity;
• calculating Hansen Solubility parameter values for the ceramic and each additive from the T1 relaxation times;
• and
• selecting the solvent and/or additive based on the respective Hansen solubility parameter value most closely matching the Hansen solubility parameter value for the ceramic.