Additive manufacturing (AM) is a powerful technology that lends itself to producing organic geometries, and building parts in short timeframes. Additive technologies are capable of printing shapes that cannot be created by any other means. One of the most salient factors in successfully building these unique designs is the utilization of soluble support material.
As is well-known by anyone who has worked with additive technology, 3D-printed end use parts and prototypes do not come off of the printer “customer-ready.” Virtually every printed part, regardless of print technology, requires some sort of post-printing, whether that be support removal, resin removal, surface finish, or all the above.
As the additive production process has been classically categorized into three separate silos; design, build/print, and post-print, the final step is all too often an afterthought. Rather than considering the additive process a linear, sequential one, PostProcess Technologies embraces the ideology that efficiencies and end part results can be dramatically improved when all of the steps are conceptualized as interdependent.This integrated approach is an advanced ideology that will be necessary to scale additive’s impact, and eventually usher in Industry 4.0.