Postprocessing is a necessary part of the additive manufacturing (AM) workflow in almost every instance, because 3D printing alone rarely yields a finished part ready for use. Depending on the materials and processes they choose, AM adopters have to account for depowdering, curing, heat treat, cleaning, dyeing, tumbling, machining and many other post-print operations. Coupled with the high-mix, low-volume production typical in AM, such steps are difficult to automate or optimize — leading many companies to develop innovative and often secretive internal processes.

In this episode of AM Radio, Stephanie Hendrixson, Peter Zelinski, Jessica Pompili and Jodee McElfresh share examples of how additive manufacturers solve their varied postprocessing challenges and seek to answer some of the questions around these critical steps.

Thanks to listeners who sent questions, left comments or lent their expertise to this episode, including Matt Havekost, Rick Beddoe, Miguel Valenzuela, Konstantin Rybalcenko, Rey Chu, John Whalen and those who responded anonymously.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by Additive Manufacturing Media. Never miss a story. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• Our calls for questions — and discussion— around postprocessing on LinkedIn
• Meet Jessica Pompili, Additive Manufacturing Media assistant editor
• A conversation on finishing's role in AM with Products Finishing editor-in-chief Scott Francis
• Our story on ATI's new Florida facility
• Article on Rivelin's robotic machining technology from Derek Korn, editor-in-chief of sister brand Production Machining
• Video on how the Rivelin solution works
• AM-Flow's sorting solution for mixed part batches
• The Cool Parts Show LIVE: Special 5-Year Anniversary Episode with support removal "hatch"
• 3D Printed Metal Component for CNC Machining Center | The Cool Parts Show #47 with sacrificial powder removal feature
• Micro Factory's enclosed mSLA system
• The modular JENI production system from Photocentric
• Solvent recycling technology company CBG Biotech
• How metal injection molding and metal binder jetting coexist at Smith Metal Products
• The metal binder jetting workflow at Freeform Technologies
• An example of a thin-fin cold plate produced by Conflux Technology
• Resolution in vat photopolymerization and smoothing techniques developed at the Technical University of Denmark

A question from an audience member about competing production rates for a forged metal part that might be made through additive manufacturing instead got Pete Zelinski thinking about production rate in general, and what this rate does and does not tell us about productivity overall.

Additive can win a production “race.” An example involving a 1,000-piece production run of parts otherwise made through molding was documented by Formlabs (more info below). However, is a head-to-head comparison like this the measure by which additive must succeed? Pete explores this question.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

Mentioned in this episode:

• From Formlabs, 3D printing vs. injection molding for a 1,000-piece run.
• Our report at Big Metal Additive on directed energy deposition for Navy projectiles.
• Subscribe to The BuildUp, our twice-weekly Additive Manufacturing newsletter.

Formnext 2024 lived up to its reputation as additive manufacturing’s largest trade show, attracting more than 34,000 attendees to 54,000 m2 of exhibit space. It was also large in the sense of showcasing just how big 3D printing can go, with plenty of showpieces and demos running to illustrate the current scale of large-format additive manufacturing (LFAM) technology. But beneath the robotic arms and towering prints, there were also plenty of new machine introductions, software advances and application examples.

Over the course of their time at the show, AM Radio cohosts Peter Zelinski and Stephanie Hendrixson noted more semiconductor applications than ever before, an increased use of tungsten, software developments aimed at solving AM’s design bottleneck, various approaches to cutting cost per part, and indications that additive manufacturing has crossed various tipping points expanding where the production method makes sense, and is on trajectory to continue that advance. In this episode of the AM Radio podcast, hear observations from the show floor and takeaways for additive manufacturers.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by Additive Manufacturing Media. Never miss a story.

Additive manufacturing and robots are parallel technologies, both digitally enabled tools for manufacturing that are advancing in adoption. But they also enable each other. 3D printing can provide the grippers, end effectors and other specialized tooling that robots require to serve production. And robots are driving AM forward as well. Collaborative robots or cobots are being used to tend 3D printer farms, sometimes mounted on autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) for a fully mobile, as well as automated, solution. And robots are opening opportunities for larger and more complex part production, by providing the motion for a growing number of large format additive manufacturing (LFAM) systems. In this episode of AM Radio, Gardner Business Media Robots & Autonomy editor Julia Hider joins Stephanie Hendrixson and Pete Zelinski to discuss how AM and robots interact, and specific examples of this interaction.

Find photos, video, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by The Cool Parts Show. Sign up for All Access.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Julia's Robots and Autonomy reporting
• How Savage Automation produces 3D printed end effectors for injection molders
• Rapid Robotics and Robots as a Service (RaaS)
• Large, 3D printed grippers used by BMW to handle car parts
• Pete's Formnext robot gripper encounter (first photo)
• Julia’s story on the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM) Institute, home of the 3D printed LEGO gripper
• More advanced and additive manufacturing work happening in Pittsburgh
• How AM enables cobot automation for Thyssenkrup Bilstein
• Examples of 3D printed cobot tooling provided by EMI Corporation, as seen in the Universal Robots booth at NPE
• Evco Plastics' Markforged printer cell, tended by a cobot informed by email
• Soft grippers and their potential usefulness for handling 3D printed parts
• The Mosaic Array 3D printer cell, enclosing four individual printers tended by one gantry system
• Javier, Ford Motor Company's AGV-mounted cobot for tending polymer printers
• Branch Robotics' mobile robot for tending a farm of potentially dissimilar 3D printers
• How Alquist 3D supports both on-site construction and in-house serial production with robot 3D printing
• A large casting replacement produced by Lincoln Electric using robot-based wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM)
• What Additive Engineering Solutions (AES) is learning in the transition from gantry- to robot-based LFAM
• How Double D plans to build next-generation horse trailers with robot-enabled 3D printing

The 2024 edition of IMTS – The International Manufacturing Technology Show welcomed more than 89,000 attendees to Chicago last week. While only a portion of the show’s 1,500 exhibitors were offering additive manufacturing equipment or services, AM nevertheless had a significant footprint at this show. Conversations with speakers, exhibitors and attendees revealed insights about where additive is finding traction now, and where it is heading next. In this episode of AM Radio, I talk with Pete Zelinski about equipment launches during the show, advances in usability and accessibility, AM’s role in the casting supply chain, the increased presence of service providers, and how the next “phase” of AM will look different.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by Additive Manufacturing Media. Never miss a story. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• LinkedIn feeds: Stephanie | Pete
• Videos from the show:
• Robot Machining and Robot DED
• Video: Scanning for Fast Model Capture and Validation of AM Parts
• More to come — subscribe to The BuildUp
• Markforged FX10 Metal Kit
• 3D Systems Titan EXT 800 pellet printer
• Formalloy, developer of the DED Smart Path scanning module
• Stratasys F3300 and Origin 2 
• One Click Metal (video to come)
• EOS dual setup system for laser powder bed fusion
• Mazak hot wire hybrid deposition machine
• Würth Additive Group’s DIS platform (video to come)
• How DIS integrates with Raise3D's resin 3D printers
• A test of Spee3D's cold spray technology in expeditionary manufacturing
• Meltio M600 DED machine
• Colibrium Additive (formerly GE Additive) and the impact of binder strength for production
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory integrated machining/DED system
• Perspective on hybrid manufacturing from Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies, which showcased its 45° deposition head
• More on service providers 3DEO and Forecast 3D/GKN Additive
• Desktop Metal Studio System
• Nikon SLM Solutions on continuing adoption: Here is an example (valves)
• HP 3D printing

Stephanie Hendrixson shares observations from her visit to learn more about two different manufacturing institutes under the umbrella of Carnegie Mellon University. First, she visited the lab facilities at Mill 19, a refurbished steel mill site, used by the Manufacturing Futures Institute. The MFI aims to accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing, through work that includes things like robotics, digital twins and generative design as well as AM. She also learned about the Next Manufacturing Center, CMU's additive-focused research institute seeking to solve increasingly specific 3D printing problems— including how to model and avoid spatter in laser powder bed fusion.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by Additive Manufacturing Media. Never miss a story. 

Want to be the first to see the episodes of The Cool Parts Show we created with Carnegie Mellon? Sign up for our ALL ACCESS newsletter for fans of the show.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Stephanie's article about additive manufacturing and Carnegie Mellon University
• More about the solar array installed at Mill 19
• Article from Solar Power World
• Mill 19
• The Manufacturing Futures Institute and Next Manufacturing Center

In this follow-up to episode #51 of AM Radio, Dr. Tim Simpson joins Stephanie Hendrixson and Pete Zelinski in the studio to talk more about how NASA is implementing and shaping additive manufacturing. As part of an intergovernmental personnel act (IPA) assignment, Dr. Simpson has spent the last two years deployed within NASA helping to advance additive use cases and connect AM users within the organization. In this episode, he shares insights from this work including NASA's collaborative relationship with commercial space; its role in studying AM fundamentals and providing testing resources;  missions currently using the technology; and where additive will enable NASA to go next.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by Additive Manufacturing Media. Never miss a story. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode #51 (PART 1)

The Cool Parts Show episodes featuring: 

• "Evolved" bracket structures for the EXCITE mission, seen at Goddard Space Flight Center
• Lattices for the Mars sample return mission, seen at the Jet Propulsion Lab
• The RAMPT thrust chamber assembly, filmed at Marshall Space Flight Center 

Other resources:

• Additive Manufacturing for Rocket Propulsion Applications by Paul Gradl
• NASA 6030 standard
• Work from other folks Tim mentioned:
  • Scott Roberts
  • Michael Schein

Additive Manufacturing Media editors have had the chance to visit three different NASA facilities: the Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Marshall Space Flight Center. Pete Zelinski and Stephanie Hendrixson learned and reported on how 3D printing is being used to fulfill NASA missions through parts like a generatively designed bracket, lightweight titanium lattices and a multimaterial thrust chamber made with two different processes. But where do these parts fit within NASA's broader mission, and what is the role of additive manufacturing at NASA? In this episode, part 1 of a 2-part series, Pete and Stephanie discuss what it's like to visit NASA and the observations they gleaned from being on site. (Make sure to subscribe and join us for Part 2, featuring AM Radio cohost and NASA system design innovator Dr. Tim Simpson.)

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by THE BUILDUP.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Cool Parts Show episodes featuring: 

• "Evolved" bracket structures for the EXCITE mission, seen at Goddard Space Flight Center
• Lattices for the Mars sample return mission, seen at the Jet Propulsion Lab
• The RAMPT thrust chamber assembly, filmed at Marshall Space Flight Center

More on these NASA initiatives:

• EXCITE Balloon Mission
• Mars Sample Return
• RAMPT

Our previous episode on qualification and standards in AM, including NASA 6030

3D printed brackets on the Juno spacecraft

When we first covered Model No. in 2020, the company was manufacturing furniture on its own large-format 3D printers, built to designs directly manipulated by customers through parametric options available on its website. Four years later, production looks a bit different. Gone is the user-facing design tool, as the company has discovered that conversation with customers is the more effective way to arrive at the right designs for its clients. More colors and materials are offered today, in part because of a circular economy-focused project that Model No. completed with several partners. And there's one important change to how furniture is made--listen to the episode to learn how (and why) the company's 3D printing capacity has evolved in the last few years.

Find photos, related links and the transcript for this episode on AdditiveManufacturing.Media.

This episode is brought to you by Additive Manufacturing Media. Never miss a story. 

Mentioned in this episode:

• The 2024 update article about Model No.
• Stephanie's original 2020 story about the company

• Model No. as an example of a manufacturer producing on its own 3D printer in this AM Radio podcast episode from 2021
• More on the “AM Factory” concept

• More on the EXT 1070 Titan Pellet 3D printer available from 3D Systems, the platform used by Model No. 
• The episode of The Cool Parts Show featuring Eaton, another company applying the Titan platform for large-format 3D printing of innovative materials — in this case for aerospace parts
• Stephanie's Model No. table on LinkedIn and X

We are trying something new on the podcast! Whenever one of us on Additive Manufacturing Media pays a visit to a manufacturer for the first time, we want to talk about the trip as soon as we return. Why keep this recap to ourselves? In this episode of AM Radio, here is Stephanie Hendrixson getting the full download just after I paid a visit to Innovative 3D Manufacturing in Franklin, Indiana. Innovative does contract production using 12 laser powder bed fusion machines, all from Renishaw. Just part of what struck me is this company’s connection to foundry work — not just in terms of process, such as workholding technique, but also in terms of business opportunity, because Innovative is getting work due to foundry leadtime challenges. Listen to our conversation above, or on your favorite podcast app. And for even more on Innovative, read the article I wrote, which is linked below. - Peter Zelinski, editor-in-chief, Additive Manufacturing

• Pete’s companion article on Innovative 3D Manufacturing, including photos from inside this facility
• Neighborhood 91, an AM industrial park in Pittsburgh
• More examples of production AM contract manufacturers