Ceramic components are expected to be widely used in aerospace field due to their excellent properties

including high strength

low density

high-temperature capability and corrosion resistance

etc. However

some defects existing in traditional manufacturing methods for preparing ceramic components

such as long preparation period

high cost

the dependence on molds and difficulty in manufacturing complex structures

have greatly limited the application of ceramic components in aerospace field. Additive manufacturing (AM) technology

which is based on the forming principle of “discrete-accumulation”

is capable of direct fabricating components from three-dimensional data. Compared with the traditional manufacturing method

AM technology has the advantages of high design freedom

short product development cycle

low manufacturing cost and so on

which are in favor of quick preparation of complex structural ceramic components without molds. This review systematically introduces the research status and limitations of the commonly used AM methods

such as three-dimensional printing (3DP)

selective laser sintering (SLS)

selective laser melting (SLM)

fused deposition modeling (FDM)

laminated objected manufacturing (LOM) and stereo lithography apparatus (SLA)

for fabricating ceramic components on the basis of a brief description of their forming principle and characteristics. Finally

the potential application of AM technology for fabricating ceramic components in aerospace field is analyzed and forecasted.