“…Therefore, they can be subjected to a large variety of different forming methods, some of them unique or at least much more easily exploitable for polymers than ceramic powders or pastes. These include casting (Melcher et al 2003), infiltration (Satoa et al 1999), pressing (Galusek et al 2007), injection moulding (Walter et al 1996), extrusion (Eom & Kim 2007;Eom et al 2008), machining (Rocha et al 2005), fibre drawing (Okamura et al 2006), blowing/ foaming (Colombo 2008), ink jetting (Mott & Evans 2001), rapid prototyping (Friedel et al 2005), electrohydrodynamic spraying/spinning ), aerosol spraying (Bahloul-Hourlier et al 2001, self-assembly (Malenfant et al 2007) and microcomponent processing such as UV/X-ray lithography, nano/micro-casting, replication, micro-extrusion and embossing/forging (Schulz 2009). …”