Author: Solivet

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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Resin 3D Printing has offered many industries like dental and medical an opportunity to create parts they never thought were possible with other 3D printed materials. Resin provides many advantages over other 3D print technologies, such as a better resolution, faster printing, and stronger printed products. However, with all these advantages, there are also problems when post-processing resin. Our patented solution offers resin printers the opportunity to get back the money they could waste in the last step of their resin workflow.

Traditional Resin Post-Processing

Traditional resin post-processing has many drawbacks. Workflows can require multiple steps, including soaking parts in multiple tanks, scrubbing or cleaning with brushes, and focused cleaning with squeeze bottles. With traditional methods, manual labor causes increased technician attendance time. These processes also typically use generic solvents not designed for additive manufacturing, such as isopropyl alcohol (IPA)

IPA can also create a hazardous work environment for employees because of its highly reactive nature and low flashpoint. These methods do not allow organizations to scale their additive operations because they are time-consuming and offer inconsistent results, not to mention the additional environmental concerns and requirements with using IPA. Using IPA for resin removal can cut into your bottom line and ruin your ROI.

PostProcess Resin Removal Solutions

We have designed post-processing solutions that help increase your throughput, efficiency, and ultimately your ROI for resin printing. How do we do this?

Increased Productivity

Our resin removal solutions offer quicker cycle times than the traditional methods detailed above. Our proprietary software promotes consistent and repeatable results, so you won’t have to worry about reprinting.

Detergents Designed for Additive

Our in-house detergents are formulated specifically for additive manufacturing and offer a higher resin capacity than IPA. With this increase in capacity, the chemistry needs fewer changeouts and has a lower disposal frequency. Your post-processing solution will provide you with higher throughput because of less machine downtime and reduced waste generation. Our PLM-403-SUB detergent, used for our resin removal solutions, complies with ISO 10993 for biocompatibility. This means if you are printing for dental, medical, or audio applications, your prints will be biocompatible after processing.

Improved Efficiency

Automating the post-processing step of your resin workflow will help you increase the efficiency of your additive workflow. On average, PostProcess resin removal solutions beat traditional processes in both processing time and technician time. After thousands of tests, our solutions take, on average, 10 minutes to clean a batch of resin-printed parts. Compare this to an average of 20 minutes with traditional post-printing methods. Technician time is significantly less, from 10 minutes to 2 minutes on average.

ROI Calculations: The Basics

Before we delve into real-world ROI calculations, let’s look at the considerations when calculating our ROIs. We ‌look at the client’s current operation, which includes total print costs, and what portion of these costs are for post-processing: labor costs, the time spent processing each part, and the percentage of parts that come out warped or damaged, to name a few. We then compared these numbers to what post-processing costs would look like with implementing a PostProcess solution. The result is an ROI unique to each specific operation.

ROI Calculations

A client wanted to improve their resin removal post-printing operation. Because of the size and scale of their process, our team suggested the DEMI 430 resin removal solution.

They originally used traditional post-processing methods, which required them to submerse parts in multiple IPA baths. Limited capacity and cycle time created a bottleneck in their workflow. Using IPA caused a significant burden for the customer because it required frequent changeouts. Once the PostProcess solution was implemented, our customer saw a decrease in both cycle time and chemistry changeouts, along with an increase in throughput.

How it Works: Automated Resin Post-Processing

Now that we’ve run through the real-life quantitative results that PostProcess solutions can achieve, let’s explore the technology behind these results and the benefits it offers.

At the heart of the DEMI family of resin removal solutions is our patent-pending Submersed Vortex Cavitation technology.

Key components in our resin removal technology include:

Proprietary Detergents

We specifically engineered PostProcess detergents for additive manufacturing. The detergents dissolve soluble support material or uncured resin without compromising the build material.

Vortex Pumping Scheme

Our solutions use a strategic pumping scheme that creates a proprietary rotating motion of the part while submerged in the detergent. Regardless of density or geometry, the technology will ensure that it uniformly exposes the part to the detergent and cavitation from the ultrasonics.

Variable Ultrasonics

Our solutions use ultrasonic-generated cavitation as another form of mechanical energy to optimize the chemistry. The ultrasonics emit sound waves at varying frequencies and amplitude, creating waves of compression and expansion in the detergent. This agitation of the liquid causes microscopic bubbles (referred to here as cavitation) to form on the surface of the part. The bubbles agitate support material as the chemistry weakens it, accelerating the processing time.

Our post-processing solutions help our customers overcome the bottlenecks and problems associated with traditional post-printing techniques. We do this with our patented hardware, proprietary software, and additive-specific detergents. Combined with our AUTOMAT3D™ software that helps users optimize the exact ‌time, temperature, and agitation. Our resin removal solutions deliver precise, hands-free post-printing for additive manufacturing workflows.

Sustainability for businesses has been a hot-button topic in recent years. Around the globe, companies strive to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their sustainability practices. Which begs the question: What leads to this push for sustainability in business? And how can we, as additive manufacturing post-processing pioneers, help contribute to our customer’s sustainability goals?

Climate Change on A Global Scale

Scientists have shown greenhouse gas emissions contribute to many concerning events and changes in the global climate. This has caused a movement in the past ~10 years for corporate responsibility in business and sustainability in business practices. To understand exactly why there’s an increase in demand for sustainable business practices, we need to discuss what spurred this desire for sustainability.

Back in 2013, The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Fifth Assessment Record about the ongoing global warming crisis. This data clarified just how heavily human activity affected climate change and inspired the 2016 Paris Agreement. The focus of the Paris Agreement was and still is to keep the temperature rise below a 2°C increase in the 21st century (preferably to 1.5°C). Actions to reach this goal involve significantly reducing carbon emissions and fossil fuel consumption. Climate change then became a hot-button topic and led to an increase in global initiatives to turn the tide on how humanity is managing its resources.

Following the Paris Agreement, sustainability became a major focus in the global business marketplace. Customers valued sustainability so much that over 90% of CEOs acknowledged it was fundamental for a successful business. As pioneers in the 3D post-processing industry, we were aware of our responsibility to build a sector that is eager to act upon sustainability initiatives.

Sustainability in Post-Processing

We feel it is our responsibility to keep this in mind when developing our post-printing solutions. It’s not only important to us, but to the entire additive manufacturing industry‌. Sustainability has always been a consideration for our customers, with 65% stating in our 3rd Annual Post-Printing Survey they would like to increase their health, safety, and sustainability factors in their post-printing operations.

So how do we do this? We keep sustainability in mind for every step of our patented three-step approach to post-processing. Our software-driven automated technology improves workflow efficiencies while reducing energy and chemical usage. Our detergents offer a significant advantage over traditional methods, with some solutions lasting 6X as long as traditional solutions. The recent launch of CONNECT3D® aligns with our sustainability goals, helping users with important tasks like recipe generation that will help them with optimum processing time and detergent usage.

To us, the most significant value in our solutions is a human-centric one—the reduced time spent on manual labor. Traditional post-printing requires tedious hands-on labor to complete support removal or surface finishing without our automated solutions. These inefficiencies can negatively affect a company’s overhead because of the energy that technicians and engineers are wasting on post-printing. Instead, these individuals should be able to use their full potential to work on more fruitful projects. It’s no surprise that excessive manual labor can negatively impact overall health and well-being.

People. Planet. Profits.

Our sustainability initiatives do not end with our products, though. Sustainability is at the heart of our company, and we are continually striving to incorporate more of it into our day-to-day operations. Much like we focus on an integrative 3D printing approach based on the three steps of design, print, and post-print, we root our commitment to sustainability in a three-pronged approach: People. Planet. Profits.

At PostProcess, we use the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals to help guide our sustainability approach. We strive to incorporate all 17 goals into the foundation of PostProcess Technologies, pulling out three to focus our initiatives around:

• Goal 3: Good Health & Wellbeing: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all.
• Goal 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth: Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all.
• Goal 12: Responsible Consumption & Production: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Sustainability is crucial to the future of our planet. We feel it is our company’s responsibility to ensure that all of our post-processing solutions have the concept of sustainability at the heart of everything we do. If you’re interested in learning more about our sustainability efforts or our post-processing solutions, be sure to explore our post-processing solutions.

3D printing has a myriad of benefits for industries like consumer products, automotive, and aerospace. But additive manufacturing’s (AM) ability to manufacture custom designs with optimal accuracy gives it a special leg up in medical and dental applications. In fact, estimates project the total 3D printing market size for dental to reach $26.1 Billion Dollars this year, due in part to the roughly 50% of dental patients who have not visited the dentist since the start of the pandemic. With such substantial projected growth, it’s imperative for those in the dental AM sector to eliminate bottlenecks from their additive workflows.

Why Additive Manufacturing in Dental?

Dental models are custom for each individual patient. Traditional methods did not allow for customization with high-volume batches. Additive manufacturing is a natural fit for the dental industry because of its ability to manufacture custom designs with optimal accuracy. It allows technicians to print in batches along with the ability to customize each dental appliance. Dentists can then create most of their custom dental models, including dentures, mouth guards, retainers, dentures, custom implants, and crowns.

Dental practitioners can capture a scan of their patient’s mouth and use MCAD software to create the scan data into a solid model. They can then use their technology to align the model and print it in a specialized resin that allows for 60-70 micron accuracy, outperforming the traditional methods. It also decreases the material used by 90%.

The Post-Processing Struggle for Dental Resin Removal

While additive allows dentists to create custom models quickly, bottlenecks can spring up when they use traditional post-printing methods. Traditional methods use isopropyl alcohol (IPA) bath(s) to clean the dental models of excess resin. This can be labor-intensive and time-consuming for technicians. IPA is also a hazardous chemical and can cause environmental concerns because of its low flashpoint. IPA saturates rapidly, meaning labs constantly have to swap it out frequently.

It’s obvious AM for dental/orthodontic appliance development can unlock significant time and cost savings. Traditional post-processing methods can create bottlenecks and obstruct efficiencies. Without an automated post-printing solution, technicians may waste a significant amount of time with dangerous compounds like IPA to remove excess resin, and can even slow down lead times.

One of our customers, Byrnes Dental Lab, demonstrates how PostProcess Technologies™ DEMI 430™ resin removal solution can mitigate the post-printing challenges that many dental 3d printers can face when streamlining their additive workflow. The DEMI 430 allowed them to reduce manual labor and part cycle times. The PLM-403-SUB detergent also lasts 7-10 times longer than IPA, which allows for more machine up-time and less time spent on chemistry changeouts.

Real-World Application: Byrnes Dental Laboratory

Byrnes Dental Lab is a cutting-edge, digital dental lab serving the United Kingdom and Europe. Byrnes Dental is revolutionizing the way the dental industry works with the latest technology for digital dentistry. This means they use the Carbon M2 Digital Light Synthesis™ (DLS™) printer for production.

But Byrnes encountered a major bottleneck as their demand grew: the traditional resin removal method of IPA dunk tanks would not provide the consistency, repeatability, and predictability that they needed to increase their production volumes. They recently implemented the software intelligent PostProcess® DEMI 430™ to streamline their resin removal process.

The DEMI 430 employs our patented Submersed Vortex Cavitation (SVC) technology to remove excess resin from parts. PostProcess’s proprietary detergents, vortex pumping scheme, and variable ultrasonics combine to remove excess resin. Software intelligence ensures that 3D-printed parts are uniformly, consistently, and reliably exposed to detergent and cavitation as they undergo post-printing.

The results for Byrnes Dental Lab were nearly instantaneous. “The improvement to our production workflow was immediately evident after only three days of use,” said Ashley Byrnes, co-owner of Byrnes Dental Lab.

Additive Manufacturing is a natural fit for the dental industry and will continue to grow and evolve with the industry’s needs. By implementing a post-processing solution, dental application manufacturers can ensure that they’re ready for the growing demand in this flourishing industry.

Check out our case studies to see the real-world applications of our automated solutions for the dental industry.

Nexus Dental Lab | Great Lakes Dental Lab

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Catch the PostProcess crew at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference happening in Chicago, Illinois, from April 3rd – 7th, 2022. AMUG provides in-depth education, networking opportunities, and training sessions for AM industry professionals from all over the world. As Platinum sponsors, we’re thrilled to be there to share our experience and expertise in post-processing.

PostProcess will be on-site at Booth P25 in Salon D to share our software-led post-printing solutions. Our DEMI 910 solution will be with us, and we’ll also be showcasing our latest innovation, CONNECT3D® Additive Manufacturing Platform! Sign Up for a live demo of CONNECT3D during the expo.

Stop by our booth and be sure to check out one of our presentations happening throughout AMUG:

Monday, April 4, 3:00 PM Astoria (3rd Floor)
Solving the Post-Printing Challenges for Resin Removal Applications

One of the common challenges that additive manufacturers face revolves around resin removal. This presentation, hosted by Dean VonBank, VP of Technical Services & Customer Success, will cover practical implementations with use case examples from those who have integrated automated post-printing to scale their operations and optimize throughput and consistency.

Monday, April 4, Astoria 3:30 PM (3rd Floor)
Utilizing Software in Post-Printing to Scale Up from Prototyping to Production

Digitizing the effort of post-processing additive parts is an untapped opportunity for companies who are want to automate, drive efficiency, and increase productivity in their additive operations. Our latest innovation, the CONNECT3D Additive Manufacturing Platform, is the newest addition to our current full-stack solution of hardware, chemistry, and software and complements the current AUTOMAT3D® software application. VP of Products, Rich Caplow, will discuss how to overcome the issues around connectivity and barriers that arise for companies who want to ‌transition from prototyping to using AM for full-scale production.

Thursday, April 7, 1:30 to 2:30 PM, Salon C
Post-Process Workshop

Get “hands-on” experience with post-processing and learn first-hand how to execute the last step in the additive manufacturing workflow. Join PostProcess for this workshop that covers DLS, FDM, MJF, Polyjet, and SLA post-processing solutions and experience the transformative power of automated post-printing.

Our team is excited to connect with the AMUG community to showcase our latest post-printing innovations. Contact us (link to contact page) to set up a meeting at Booth P25 in Salon D. We hope to see you there!

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