Post-Processing Page 1

This week's Product Story showcases the Toro Company and the solution they used for rapidly increasing 3D print volume while reducing existing bottlenecks. 

The Toro Company first implemented Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) in 2012 to prototype smaller product components in-house. This soon turned into a full additive manufacturing shop with six 3D printers on site so they could better serve their customers and expand their additive potential. However, with the rapidly increasing print volume there were post-processing bottlenecks that arose, so Toro turned to the PostProcess BASE support removal solution to more efficiently match throughput to demand. 

The importance of increased productivity, quality and consistency are rapidly growing in necessity in many industries to stay a step ahead of the competition. Many are taking advantage of rapid prototyping to produce jigs, fixtures and tools with FDM materials that provide engineering-grade strength and a faster timeline to production. This advancement of improved design and build processes is very important to the improved productivity, but the final step in production is often overlooked as an opportunity to further optimize overall production times.

Selecting the right 3D printing technology can be difficult, especially when you consider all the different key drivers in the decision-making process. Are you looking for a smooth surface finish? Maybe you’re looking for strong mechanical properties with a common, easy to use plastic such as ABS or ASA? Now, what if I told you that you didn’t always need to compromise here? With minimal amounts of post-processing techniques, you can achieve a smooth injection molded finish using FDM technology. Sure, parts are fully functional right off the print tray, but utilizing an additional post-processing step can help elevate your part to the next level, and really catch the end user’s eye. Like the flexibility that 3D printing provides, users have many different solutions for their post-processing needs, so let’s dive in!

TriMech is excited to announce its new partnership with PostProcess Technologies, who are bringing their industry-leading post-processing products to TriMech's growing catalog of complete engineering and additive manufacturing solutions. With this new partnership, TriMech can now directly offer clients more ways to create opportunities and increase profit by shortening the manual effort required in the last crucial stage of the 3D printing process.

Anyone who has compared traditional FDM (sometimes called Fused Filament Fabrication) to other 3D printing technologies, such as PolyJet, SLA and SLS, has definitely thought at one time or another, “This technology is both inexpensive to print and strong, but I really wish it had better resolution.” In this blog, we explore how to make FDM look as good as other technologies while remaining inexpensive and not impacting overall strength. We’ve printed a horde of Easter Island Moai to play around with the top three ways to smooth PLA parts.

Your part isn't always done after the machine goes quiet. Depending on the intended end-use, some 3D printed parts coming off a Stratasys FDM printer will require post processing. To make this process a little easier, we compiled a list of FAQ about post-processing FDM parts.

If you have an FDM 3D printer, you might have heard about vapor smoothing parts. For those who have not seen it yet, you're in luck! Because in this blog we discuss how to use acetone in post-processing and use vapor smoothing on FDM parts.