Publisher of a popular annual guide to the additive manufacturing industry releases a report on postprocessing

Wohlers Associates Inc. has released a special report titled Post-Processing of AM and 3D-Printed Parts.

The publication provides loads of details and data about the time-consuming, often expensive steps that must be performed after printing. These include removal of support materials; surface finishing, coloring, and coating; and heat treatment.

The 43-page digital report is divided into seven main sections:

1. Introduction (design for AM, joining AM parts)

2. Polymer Support Material Removal (material extrusion, single material system, breakaway support material, soluble support, vat photopolymerization, material jetting, powder bed fusion)

3. Metal Support Material Removal (powder removal, laser powder bed fusion, electron beam melting, metal binder jetting, part removal from build plate, support material removal, manual removal, wire-EDM removal, electrochemical removal, metal material extrusion)

4. Surface Finishing (abrasive flow machining, anodizing, machining and grinding, media blasting, passivating and phosphating, plasma and ion-beam cleaning, plasma spraying, shot peening, strengthening gypsum parts, hiding layer lines with textures, vapor smoothing, vibratory polishing, high-speed centrifugal barrel finishing)

5. Coloring and Coating (dyeing, painting, and clear-coating, hydrographics, wrapping, metalizing polymer parts, electroplating, physical vapor deposition)

6. Heat Treatment (residual stress relief, annealing, case hardening, gas nitriding, precipitation hardening, hot isostatic pressing, sintering)

7. Summary

Wohlers Associates also publishes the popular Wohlers Report, an annual guide that assesses the global AM/3D printing sector.

A single-user copy of Post-Processing of AM and 3D-Printed Parts costs $595. Click here for complete ordering details.