Components generatively manufactured from metallic materials usually have a support structure and sintered-on metal particles when they come out of the printer. In addition, the usually high surface roughness does not meet the functional or decorative requirements placed on the components. This makes post-processing and surface finishing indispensable. This is often still a very costly and time-consuming manual process. This is at the expense of the speed advantage of AM processes and therefore productivity. It also drives up production costs.

In order to eliminate this shortcoming and promote the use of additively manufactured components, Hirtenberger and Rösler have worked together to develop a solution for fully automated post-processing. It consists of a plug-and-play system in which various processing methods, such as patented shearing, are used in combination. The parts are fed to the machine directly from the printer or after heat treatment and are post-processed fully automatically.

In the first step, support structures and sintered-on metal particles are removed by shearing and the surfaces are pre-smoothed in accordance with the specifications for the functional and decorative surface quality. This chemical-electrochemical process is also suitable for processing complex components and internal surfaces and can be scaled as required.

The second step involves what is known as high-polishing. This surface finish allows not only very smooth surfaces with a defined roughness to be achieved without loss of edge sharpness, but also high-gloss surfaces to be produced. On leaving the system, the parts can be processed or packaged immediately without any further treatment, such as cleaning. This new solution can be used for all metals and metal alloys commonly used in additive manufacturing, such as titanium, aluminum, stainless steel and Inconell. The process media are fully integrated into the system and can be easily refilled, with fully automatic control. The machine for post-processing can be integrated into networked and line production or operated as a standalone system.

Parallel processing of several parts
Depending on the system size and component dimensions, several components can be processed automatically in the machine at the same time. The throughput times are significantly shorter compared to the methods previously available on the market for automatic post-processing. In addition to enormous time savings, it also offers the advantage of process reliability and reproducibility compared to the manual processing that has often been used to date.

The cooperation solution will be presented to trade visitors at Formnext, which takes place in Frankfurt from November 13 to 16, 2018. as