Author: Solivet

2023 brought a wave of dynamic collaborations and innovative ventures to PostProcess Technologies. Our dedicated team has been tirelessly advancing state-of-the-art post-processing automated and intelligent solutions, transforming the landscape of the additive manufacturing sector. As we approach the year’s end, let’s delve into the noteworthy milestones that unfolded at PostProcess this past year.

Move Away from IPA: AUX-400-RINSE allows for an IPA-free Resin Removal Workflow

In May, we announced our latest rinse detergent to be used in our resin removal workflow: AUX-400-RINSE. AUX-400-RINSE is an organic-based rinse solution that replaces the IPA rinse step in the PostProcess resin removal workflow that may be required following the processing of parts in one of our full-stack automated solutions.

This is a revolutionary development for the resin removal workflow because IPA can create many challenges to additive operations. When combined with our automated and intelligent solutions, AUX-400-RINSE now creates an IPA-free workflow, allowing for a safer alternative to IPA, thanks to a high flashpoint that does not require explosion-proof or ATEX-certified equipment. It also offers improved performance, rinsing 3X as many parts per Gallon (or 3.78 L) as IPA, and improved sustainability because it is easily filtered for reuse.

Partnerships Across the Globe Help Increase the Reach of PostProcess

PostProcess has consistently recognized the significant value that channel partners bring to the additive manufacturing market. In fact, we announced 6 new partnerships in 2023:

PLM Group

PLM Group, a company rooted in the Nordic region, specializes in delivering 3D design and additive manufacturing solutions. This partnership effectively introduces PostProcess to the markets of the Nordic countries, the Baltic region, and Iceland.

CadBlu

Bringing over 25 years of industry expertise, CAD BLU has established itself as a reliable source of digital 3D printing solutions tailored to jewelry design and manufacturing. This partnership simplifies the process for customers to acquire a comprehensive solution for wax 3D printing, facilitating end-to-end digitization of the workflow from part design through 3D printing to post-processing.

Additive Solutions Group (ErPro Group Subsidiary)

As a leading service bureau in France, Erpro Group is widely recognized for its expertise in utilizing additive manufacturing for production purposes. Through its subsidiary, Additive Solutions, the company concentrates on empowering customers with comprehensive manufacturing process solutions. The collaboration with PostProcess helps their customers incorporate automated post-processing and delivers end-to-end solutions to the French market.

CDG 3D Tech

Concurrent Design Group (CDG 3D TECH), a company specializing in 3D engineering design and manufacturing brings PostProcess’s digitized post-processing solutions to customers across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland.

Raplas

Headquartered in Wales, RAPLAS Technologies, a distinguished industrial manufacturing technology company, leads the way in SLA production resin systems, resin materials, and software. This collaboration establishes a well-defined workflow for large-format SLA in additive manufacturing, including the crucial post-processing step of resin removal.

Proto3000

Proto3000, a leading provider of 3D printing solutions and services, provides PostProcess solutions to dental customers throughout the United States and Canada to transform the resin removal process for dental professionals.

Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems Revolutionizes Post-Processing with Automated FDM Support Removal 

We have published a new case study featuring Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, a company specializing in the development and provision of cutting-edge active safety technologies, energy management solutions, and air brake charging and control systems for heavy-duty trucks, tractors, trailers, buses, and commercial vehicles across North America.

This insightful Q&A explores the efficiency of the PostProcess Volumetric Velocity Dispersion (VVD) technology integrated into the VORSA 500™ and highlights how this technology enables Bendix substantial time savings in their FDM part finishing, leading to reduced costs for their additive manufacturing operations.

Nexus Dental Makes the Leap to Automation for Post-Processing with the DEMI 430™

Nexus Dental Lab stands at the forefront of the dental industry and is committed to transforming dental practices. They provide a range of services, including digital smile diagnostic services, dental implant restorations, crown and bridge solutions, implant guide design and production, direct print services, and Lucitone digital copy dentures.

Encountering issues in their resin post-processing workflow, they struggled with the use of IPA, which posed both environmental sustainability concerns and risks to their staff. Discover how the implementation of the PostProcess® DEMI 430™ enabled them to reduce manual labor by one-third.

You can read the full case study here

New and Improved ROI Calculator for PolyJet

In 2023, we also launched a brand new ROI tool to help determine the best PostProcess solution for your PolyJet operation. Enter basic details about your existing post-processing operations, and we’ll analyze them to illustrate the potential cost savings and productivity improvements achievable by transitioning to an automated PolyJet Support Removal solution.

Our calculator examines your current operation, taking into account labor costs, the time allocated to process each part, and the percentage of parts that experience warping or damage.
While the productivity gains may vary for each customer, many witness a return on investment within weeks, thanks to reduced cycle times and increased throughput.

You can access the ROI calculator here

‘How It Works’ Webinar Series Decodes PostProcess’ Automated & Intelligent Post-Processing Solutions

This year, our How it Works webinars examined the workflow associated with each of our revolutionary automated and intelligent post-processing solutions. Hosted by an expert from our PostProcess team, this series looked at our post-processing solutions for resin, FDM, PolyJet, and wax.

Watch the recorded webinars here.

2023 was full of exciting news here at PostProcess, and 2024 is shaping up to be just as exciting. Brace yourselves for an equally exhilarating 2024, filled with groundbreaking advancements and announcements that promise to redefine your experience with automated post-processing.

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What’s on your to-do list for your additive operation in 2023? Additive manufacturing continues to grow in popularity and become a major part of a wide variety of industries. It’s important in today’s economic climate to evaluate your overall workflow and how you can improve upon your operation for the new year.

Back in December, we released our 4th Annual Post-Processing Survey. Within the survey, we asked respondents from all over the globe about their current additive operations, including post-processing, and how they planned to advance and alter their plans in the upcoming year. Let’s look at some of the common themes to see what to evaluate in your additive manufacturing operation for 2023.

Environmental Health & Safety Are Paramount to Effective Workflows.

Environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) considerations have always been important to anyone in additive manufacturing. The safety and well-being of their operations continue to be critical to maintaining an effective facility.

57% of respondents stated they want to improve their operation’s environmental, health, and safety in 2023, with the largest concentration in the EU. Those that use DED, Vat Photopolymerization, and Powder Bed Fusion print technologies reported the highest percentage of respondents looking to improve EH&S. When reviewing by industry, the medical industry is looking to improve EH&S most, with 71% prioritizing it for 2023.

As new print technologies emerge, so do new environmental, health, and safety risks. The standard ISO 17296-2 lists seven major groups under the heading “3D printing,” which shows that operating in an additive environment is not without danger. Many risks are linked to the technology itself, as well as the risks of the raw printing material. Powdered materials used in technologies like SLS, DMLS, and SLM are finely milled and increase the risk of anoxia. Liquids like resin used in technologies, such as DLP, SLA, and CLIP print technologies, can irritate and/or burn the user if they come in direct contact with the skin.

Finish 3D Printed Parts Faster.

Traditional post-processing methods are notoriously time-consuming. For the third year in a row, our respondent’s number one post-processing concern was the time it took for them to finish parts. While material extrusion remains the print technology that reported this pain point the most often, the time to finish parts is problematic across all technologies. Post-printing can be labor and time-intensive, leading to bottlenecks that can derail the entire additive workflow if you aren’t careful.

Why does it take so long to finish parts with traditional post-processing methods? One reason is that most of these post-processing methods are taken from traditional manufacturing. They weren’t designed to work specifically for additive manufacturing, so they aren’t efficient in removing support structures or excess resin in any sort of optimized way. This leads to greater bottlenecks, part warpage, and part breakage. Automated solutions that allow for reduced manual labor and increased efficiency can ease some of these common bottlenecks.

The Growing Importance of Sustainability in Additive Manufacturing.

Another buzzword heard around the additive field is the increased emphasis on sustainability. While often lumped into environmental, health, and safety, we can say based on our respondent’s input that sustainability is an important factor to consider for any additive operation. 38% of the people we spoke with are looking to increase sustainability in 2023.

Many printing companies emphasize sustainability, with companies like EOS taking a serious stance on integrating sustainability into their overall company mission. They’ve even offered powder for 3D printing that can be reused. Stratasys also maintains a commitment to what they call Mindful Manufacturing™ and have published a Sustainability Report

We here at PostProcess also feel that this dedication to sustainability should extend through to the post-printing step in the workflow. That’s why we also are committed to continuously improving our additive-tailored solutions’ efficiencies and cutting down on material usage and waste.

As the additive market continues to grow, post-processing methods can cost companies a lot of time, money, and resources and impact the overall efficiency of an operation. That’s why it’s important to evaluate your current processes and how you can improve them.

If you’d like to learn more about our insights from our 4th Annual Post-Processing Survey, download the full report here.

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Post-processing has long been called the “dirty little secret” of additive manufacturing. But as additive manufacturing becomes more popular and additive users move into production with their additive solutions, the bottlenecks and problems become more and more apparent.

For our 4th Annual Post-Processing Survey, we asked respondents about their top post-processing challenges for each of the most popular print technologies. Here are the responses for the most popular technology used: Material Extrusion. Material extrusion includes FDM, FFF, and MEM print technologies.

The top pain points for this group remained consistent over the past three years of our survey, which indicates that while print technologies continue to advance, the traditional post-processing techniques still cause bottlenecks in the additive workflow.

Length of Time to Finish Parts

The first and most common pain point reported was the time to finish parts. Material extrusion allows for the 3D printing of complex geometries. However, these geometries then require support material to ensure the stability of the print. Often the traditional process of removing supports is cumbersome and requires a large amount of manual labor and/or soaking. Chemical baths are used to soak parts made with soluble supports. Lengthy post-processing time slows down production exponentially and can disrupt and even ruin an additive workflow if bottlenecks happen too often.

Consistency

Traditional support removal methods can lead to inconsistent results due to the manual labor required. With the need for skilled technicians to manually remove supports, parts cleaned by different technicians will be different, creating inconsistency in the final product.

Damaged Parts

Along with consistency, damaged parts are a common challenge with traditional material extrusion post-processing methods. We can look at well-known companies like Toro, who used to spend 2X as long to finish parts as they did to print parts.

Parts that are soaked to remove support material often need to be soaked for many hours at a time. With parts soaking in a caustic bath for ten or more hours, parts become saturated with chemicals or bloated, which makes them unusable.

These struggles with the length of time to finish parts, consistency, and damaged parts are common with traditional post-processing methods for not only material extrusion but all 3D print technologies. This is because traditional post-processing was pulled from other traditional manufacturing methods and wasn’t designed for additive manufacturing. With that in mind, solutions created specifically for additive manufactured parts can help ease these common post-processing concerns. Automated solutions built with additive in mind can help cut time, labor, and ultimately the cost associated with the post-printing step of additive manufacturing.

Want to learn more insights from the 2022 survey? Download the report here.

Additive manufacturing is a revolutionary way to create 3D-printed end-user parts. It can offer benefits to almost any industry looking to ramp up prototyping and/or production. But when talking about the power of additive manufacturing, it’s also important to note one of the often overlooked steps: post-processing. Post-processing is often necessary and is one of the final steps required for a customer-ready part. Each print technology requires a different post-processing workflow.

But what is post-processing? Why is it needed? And what are some common post-processing techniques? Let’s take a deeper look at what post-processing is and common post-processing methods for popular 3D print technologies.

What is Post-Processing?

Post-processing refers to the third step in the additive manufacturing workflow. It can refer to the one or many processes that need to occur once a part is 3D printed to remove support structures or excess material on the build. This can include support removal and/or surface finishing. What steps need to be taken are largely dependent not only on the print technology used, but the print material used and the intended final use of the 3D printed part.

Why is Post-Processing in 3D Printing Needed?

Once a part is 3D printed, depending on the technology used, some steps need to be taken before we can use it for its final intended purpose. Many 3D prints require supports that are built into the design to maintain the integrity of the build structure. This is typical with technologies like Fused Deposition Modeling [FDM] and PolyJet, but can also appear in resin 3D printing in Stereolithography [SLA]. Some technologies that print metal parts, like Direct Metal Laser Sintering [DMLS], leave build lines on the part that may require surface finishing.

As we mentioned, each print technology requires different post-processing steps before a part is complete and customer ready. There are also many post-processing techniques to process these parts. Let’s examine some traditional post-processing techniques.

What are Some Traditional 3D Printing Post-Processing Techniques?

Print technologies that use liquid resin typically come out covered in excess resin. The additional resin needs to be removed before the final part. Traditional methods to remove excess resin include baths of toxic IPA or solvent that will remove the greasy excess resin. This can often take multiple baths and require manual hand scrubbing to remove the residue fully. Parts can then be cured in an oven and painted if needed.

Many metal 3D print technologies like Direct Metal Laser Sintering [DMLS] and Selective Laser Melting [SLM] leave layer lines on their 3D printed parts. It often leaves parts with a rough surface. To address this, traditional post-processing methods include vibratory machines and hand sanding to clean and smooth these parts for their intended use.

Fused Deposition Modeling typically requires support structures when the print has overhangs or suspended features. Support structures allow for the successful printing of complex shapes by propping up these otherwise unsupported areas and keeping them from collapsing while being printed, helping to maintain part geometry. FDM support material is made of a different material than the build material and is sometimes soluble in a solvent. For FDM support removal, traditional methods include soaking in IPA to remove the support material or manual removal with pliers or other hand tools.

Many risks and problems are associated with these traditional and outdated post-processing methods. While traditional methods can be effective in finishing parts, they create bottlenecks for additive manufacturers. For example, soaking in IPA baths can harm the build material and warp parts. Soaking for extended periods in IPA or caustic solvents can also waterlog parts and lead to long drying times before they are complete. Lastly, manual bulk removal has implications for both consistency and quality.

What is Automated Post-Processing in 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing?

Automated post-processing integrates hardware, software, and chemistry to alleviate some traditional post-processing struggles. A software-intelligent post-processing solution offers reliable, consistent, and repeatable results that aren’t found with traditional methods. It combines years of data from thousands upon thousands of benchmarked parts to optimize recipes to deliver precise finishing, helping any operation scale at a rapid pace.

By automating the post-processing step in additive manufacturing, you can eliminate time-consuming and expensive piece-by-piece manual cleaning, providing reliable resin and support removal and dependable surface finishing. An automated post-processing solution can ease the challenges with traditional methods and eliminate the bottleneck in additive workflows.

For more information on automated post-processing solutions, visit [HERE].

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Sustainability, health, and safety are all important factors for most manufacturing operations. As we’ve mentioned previously, companies are making strides toward reducing their carbon footprint and improving their sustainability practices. With 65% of additive manufacturers looking to increase their health, safety, and sustainability in their post-processing operations this year, it’s important to evaluate every element of your post-processing workflow.

One major hurdle additive manufacturers face with the sustainability, health, and safety of their operations is the use of IPA in their post-processing workflow, especially with resin. What are some alternatives to IPA in the post-processing workflow, and what’s the best option for your operation? Read on to find out.

Why Not IPA?

IPA or isopropyl alcohol is the traditional solvent used for post-processing many resins. IPA also reaches saturation fast and requires frequent changeouts, which can affect the sustainability of your additive operation.

Once the parts are soaked in an IPA bath, often multiple times, they can become saturated and warped from the time spent in the tank(s) to get the resin removed. Even after multiple baths, parts may still need manual scrubbing or cleaning to remove any leftover residue or stickiness from the soaking process. This can cause musculoskeletal disorders in technicians who are required to repeat this scrubbing step repeatedly.

While your parts will get clean, IPA can be problematic from both a sustainability point of view and a health/safety point of view. The risk of dermal or respiratory damage is a major concern for operations that use IPA. Even more concerning is the low flashpoint of IPA (12℃ or 53.7℉), which makes this chemical combustible and can cause explosions.

Traditional IPA Alternatives

Alternatives to IPA are available that can be used for resin removal. However, most do not help in areas like sustainability, health, or safety. For example, dipropylene glycol methyl ether (DPM) or tripropylene glycol methyl ether (TPM) may be used instead of IPA. But these solvents still cause harmful fumes and require frequent chemical changeouts. They aren’t very effective in complex geometries and therefore pose the same warpage concerns as IPA. With all the extra post-processing steps required with these alternatives, you’ll also pay more per unit.

Is There a Better Option?

If sustainability, health, and safety are at the forefront of your considerations for a post-processing solution, PostProcess’s PLM-403-SUB could be the answer to your post-processing struggles. Our detergent offers a significantly lower flashpoint when compared to IPA and does not give off overpowering, unpleasant fumes like IPA or its alternatives. Because our detergent is less hazardous than IPA, it can be cheaper to dispose of and reaches saturation much slower than IPA, meaning less waste.

PLM-403-SUB was specifically developed to work with our patented Submersed Vortex Cavitation (SVC) technology, a transformative post-printing solution. When used in one of our DEMI family of solutions, our detergent unlocks revolutionary benefits and efficiencies for SLA/DLP/CLIP users.

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