Month: January 2022

Many companies have begun to implement additive manufacturing into their production workflows. While additive manufacturing can help increase your production capabilities, it can also come with an increased number of parts that need to be processed, creating massive bottlenecks in your workflow and processes if you aren’t careful. With this in mind, you may want to consider an automated post-printing solution to help maximize your production.

Traditional Post-Printing Methods
Most 3D printed parts require some sort of post-processing to get them customer-ready. Traditional post-printing methods include the use of hand tools, water jets, and sandpaper. Hand-sanding, manual debulking, and support removal by hand increases the time to create a part, affecting your bottom line. Your finished parts may also be inconsistent, so even after investing a significant amount of time and money, you may still not be able to use that traditionally finished part.

Why Automate your Process?
It’s evident that traditional post-printing methods can affect your additive manufacturing workflow. Bottlenecks can cause major backups and increase turnaround times. Your results can also be inconsistent due to the manual labor required.

Automating your post-printing process may be a great option to help your additive manufacturing operation run smoother, have more consistent parts, and increase your throughput. It can ease many of the setbacks and additional time and labor expected with traditional post-printing processes. High-quality parts with a repeatable, consistent post-printing process can revolutionize your additive operation and allow you to scale up the capabilities of your operation.

How to Integrate Automation to Scale Your Additive Manufacturing
How can you integrate automation into your post-printing? We here at PostProcess were the first company to pioneer fully automated post-printing solutions specifically for AM, connecting end-to-end digitization from the design step to the post-print step. Our automated solutions use a patent-pending combination of integrated technologies: software, hardware, and chemistry, to help eliminate manual labor in the post-printing process.

Our friendly, intuitive software digitizes post-printing. It’s developed from hundreds of benchmark parts of all technologies and materials. Our tailored recipes ensure a precise finish, reducing your operator attendance time and enabling scalability and volume production printing.

It’s clear that automation during post-printing simply makes sense. It could also be a crucial part of your additive manufacturing process. Are you interested in learning more about our automated, intelligent, and comprehensive post-printing solutions? Contact us today!

-> Want to connect? Contact Us

-> Return to Blog Homepage

The traditional approach to PolyJet support removal is not optimized for today’s additive manufacturing world. If the bulk of your PolyJet support removal is still done by hand or with outdated equipment, you likely deal with unnecessarily long wait times and warped or inconsistently finished parts. You deserve a support removal solution that’s conducive to softer materials and parts with more complex internal channels. At PostProcess, we are solely focused on solutions that solve additive manufacturing’s post-printing bottleneck problem.

Three factors set us apart from others in the post-printing industry. Our comprehensive solution to PolyJet post-printing includes:

• Cutting-edge AUTOMAT3D™ software allows you to control algorithms that enable you to manage and optimize the process easily.
• Our Submersed Vortex Cavitation (SVC) technology fully submerges parts and print trays to enable our chemistry to access complex geometries.
• Exclusive additive-formulated chemistry provides a safer work environment with minimal waste handling.

Our automated and intelligent solution is trusted to tackle all of your PolyJet support removal needs. By unlocking your full potential for PolyJet 3D printing, you can scale your operations exponentially. Check it out:

• Reduced Labor & Operator Error with a simple, software-controlled, intuitive interface. AUTOMAT3D®, the software behind our technology, utilizes sensor monitoring for agitation control that can reduce breakage PolyJet rates to as low as 0.1%.
• Increased Throughput by more than 30% compared to traditional manual water blasting, making the PostProcess PolyJet support removal the fastest system on the market.
• Advanced Process Controls utilize the technology  to control multiple energy sources to optimize PolyJet support removal. This is essential for parts that have very complex intricate details or very thin and fragile walls.
• Increased Consistency & Reduced Damage through our SVC technology’s pump scheme that ensures “parts that float sink, and parts that sink float.” In other words, regardless of density or geometry, SVC will ensure that the part is uniformly exposed to the detergent and cavitation from the ultrasonics, enabling a uniform finish.

Need more convincing? Protolabs is one of the many companies that realized significant and quick return-on-investment with a PostProcess support removal solution, reducing labor time by 50% and effectively freeing up 20 valuable labor hours per week. Read more about their experience here.

Ready to learn more? Discover the ideal solutions for PolyJet support removal here.

-> Want to connect? Contact Us

-> Return to Blog Homepage

PostProcess entered this year like everyone else: with renewed hope and energy. After the struggles that 2020 had brought upon the world, we were ready and willing to move forward and push ahead. For us, this year brought an abundance of progress: new partnerships, a new board member, and, of course, new and exciting ways to digitize the additive manufacturing workflow. Let’s look at the major highlights from the past year here at PostProcess.

Shaping Additive with Collaboration: Partnership with Carbon
In May, we announced our partnership with major 3D printing manufacturer Carbon. We launched our automated solution, the DEMI 910, to pair with Carbon’s L1 and M2 3D printers. The DEMI 910 optimizes end-part quality, improves safety, and increases throughput for Carbon resin post-processing.

The DEMI 910 can process the entire build platform from a Carbon Large Form L1 printer or two build forms from the Carbon High-Resolution M2 printer. PLM-403-SUB solution yielded improved user experience, efficiency, and throughput compared with cleaning with isopropyl alcohol (IPA).

Combined with our AUTOMAT3D® software platform and our Carbon-specific detergent, the DEMI 910 offers automated resin removal for the most popular Carbon resins: CE 22110, DPR 10, RPU 70, MPU 100, EPX 82, DPR 10, EPU 40, EPU 41, EPX 82, FPU 50, MPU 100, RPU 70, RPU 130, and UMA 90. Carbon DPR 10 resin is a proven material used in dental and orthodontic model production and a range of other applications.

Dinsmore, Inc., a leading California 3D printer service that specializes in design for prototyping, additive manufacturing, and general 3D printing, adopted our DEMI 910 solution. Using Carbon’s L1 and M2 Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS™) printers for production, the DEMI 910 automates their resin removal process, which has been integral for their growth by speeding up production to maintain the productivity and value they are known for. According to Jay Dinsmore, CEO at Dinsmore, “The DEMI 910 has truly proven revolutionary in enhancing efficiencies and keeping part and production within budget.”

Achieving Biocompatibility Milestone
Along with the success of the DEMI 910, our resin removal detergent PLM-403-SUB achieved compliance with ISO Standard 10993 for evaluation of biocompatibility, as validated by Toxikon Corporation. This detergent serves as an integral part of the company’s comprehensive automated resin removal solution, and creates an impactful new industry standard of post-printing in the medical industry.

Joining Forces with Renowned Fraunhofer IAPT

We kicked off the summer with a major partnership: in June we announced our collaboration with Fraunhofer Institution for Additive Manufacturing Technologies IAPT, part of the world’s leading applied research organization Fraunhofer. Fraunhofer IAPT installed a PostProcess DECI™ support removal solution to aid in the digitization of their fused deposition modeling (FDM) processes. The DECI implements Volumetric Velocity Dispersion to assist in support removal associated with FDM printing.

Along with the DECI being used for their FDM process needs, Fraunhofer collaborated with us on metal surface finishing technology with the PostProcess DECI Duo. They printed high-precision test specimens in various materials and supplied us with highly accurate measurements and analysis of the finished parts.

Teaming Up with Global Metal AM Specialist AddUp
In November, we announced our partnership with AddUp, a metal 3D printing machine manufacturer and producer of parts by metal additive manufacturing. The DECI Duo will be paired with AddUp printers to help the affordability and safety of manufacturing AM parts by reducing the cost of post-printing and improving safety and traceability through digitization and automation.

With the DECI Duo automated metal surface finishing solution, AddUp focused on parts for aerospace, fashion, energy, automotive, energy, and medical industries. Partnering with PostProcess just made sense, according to Frank Moreau, CEO of AddUp, “[we found] the DECI Duo to meet the most challenging requirements of our customers.”

Pioneer of Big Data Analytics Joins Board of Directors
March brought great news for our Executive Board of Directors. We were honored to announce that Dr. Usama Fayyad had joined our board of directors. Dr. Fayyad is a world-renowned expert in data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI). His impressive resume includes: being the world’s first Chief Data Officer at Yahoo, Chairman, co-founder, and CTO at several startups in Seattle and San Francisco, launching the largest technology accelerator in the Middle East/North Africa, and co-founding OODA Health, among many other notable career accomplishments.

Dr. Fayyad has published over 100 technical articles and holds more than 20 patents. Dr. Fayyad joined our board alongside other seasoned executives, who help guide PostProcess with their insights from building and leading a variety of highly successful companies.

So while 2021 might be wrapping up, PostProcess is just getting started. We’re excited to see what’s in store for 2022 and look forward to providing you with even more opportunities to automate and digitize your additive manufacturing workflow.

-> Want to connect? Contact Us

-> Return to Blog Homepage