3D Printed Metal Surface Finishing Automation Solutions

Today’s 3D Printed Metal Post-Processing Problem

3D Printed metals bring additional challenges to the surface finishing of additive parts: tighter tolerances, additional support structure considerations, and even new safety hazards. Today’s surface finishing techniques for 3D printed metal can require significant manual labor or the use of hazardous chemicals and may not be designed for the delicate and complex nature of additive manufactured parts. Techniques carried over from traditional metal fabrication can result in burrs, surface flaws, or even breakage, leading to additional work or scrap. These approaches are proving to hinder scale-up to production volumes of customer-ready parts in terms of throughput, consistency, and productivity.

The PostProcess Solution for 3D Printed Metal Surface Finishing

PostProcess’s proven digital approach utilizes a proprietary software platform that intelligently drives a mechanical system using chemistry that is tailored for additive manufacturing materials. Our comprehensive solutions continually deliver an exponential increase in throughput, as well as unparalleled consistency, for metal 3D printed parts.

Software Intelligence

PostProcess’ AUTOMAT3D™ platform allows for the highest level of process predictability, insight, and control. Our software manages multiple sources of energy as the first key component of our metal finishing solutions.

Surface Finishing Hardware

Our Suspended Rotational Force (SRF) and Thermal Atomized Fusillade (TAF) technologies each provide a different approach to address varying levels of initial surface roughness across a variety of geometries without sacrificing fine feature detail.

Additive Formulated Chemistry

PostProcess’ solutions leverage detergents, media, and suspended solids designed specifically for additive. Our trusted techology produces the right mixture of chemistry discharged over the surface of the part to provide exacting surface finishing.

Enabling Volume Production.

Increased Throughput

With the ability to process many parts at once, our solutions’ software intelligence requires little operator intervention and minimizes downtime.

Reduced Manual Labor

PostProcess’ comprehensive technology mimics the ‘art’ of surface finishing in a manner that frees up skilled labor to further scale the operation.

Preserve Fine Feature Detail

Software monitors and controls the speed and direction of our TAF system’s axes, processing temperature, and air and liquid pressures to ensure energy sources are utilized effectively without damaging or eroding parts.