When people who are familiar with additive manufacturing talk about the post-processing step, they usually speak in terms of minimizing the time and labor associated with finishing their parts. Many companies who are new to 3D printing find out late in the game about the additional cost required when parts come off the printer – the industry’s “dirty little secret”. Here at PostProcess, we like to talk in more positive terms about the post-print step. Our mission to digitize post-printing is all about helping customers maximize the opportunity for their business in the post-processing stage with the remarkable ROI possible from our automated and intelligent solutions.
The best way to illustrate ROI is through real-world examples of customer use cases – in this instance, a consumer goods application of PolyJet utilizing our DEMI 800 Support Removal solution. This particular business has the intersecting burden of particularly tedious support removal on delicate parts and a high labor rate.
The PostProcess DEMI 800 is the perfect solution for this situation, as the system’s precision-controlled agitated flow effectively removes supports with a ‘sink-float’ process rotating parts throughout the chamber. This variable motion, combined with optimal energy delivery and chemistry filtration, results in fast and uniform support removal. With the motion of fluids controlled by our Agitation Algorithms within our AUTOMAT3D™ software, sensor data adjusts in real-time so that parts are not damaged and the removal of supports is consistent.
This customer’s ability to process 30 parts in a cycle, while achieving uniform removal of support material every time, made ditching their manual finishing process for an automated solution a no-brainer:
– decreased technician touch time per part 71% from 4 to 1.16 minutes
– reduced total cost per part 77% from $10.00 to $2.31
When we talk about ROI however, it’s more than just dollars and cents. The ability to utilize any one of our systems for multiple print technologies allows customers to streamline their operations. Automation delivers a level of quality and consistency that is simply not possible using manual processes or traditional manufacturing machines, including faster processing times with less or no breakage driving better throughput. Our customers are able to redirect their skilled labor to more valuable and engaging tasks. Additionally, a software-based approach on our production systems provide automated basic maintenance scheduling, which means technicians spend less time on maintenance and have less pressure to remember maintenance schedules. And ultimately, our automated, data-driven approach is necessary to enable additive manufacturing to scale.
Want to learn more about the DEMI 800?
– Learn about how software, hardware, and chemistry work together in this White Paper
– Read this recent blog post on the newest design features of the DEMI 800
– Watch this video on PolyJet Support Removal
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