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Aitiip Technology Centre in Spain is one of Europe’s largest development laboratories for advanced manufacturing technologies, including additive manufacturing (AM). To automate its post-processing operation, which was previously carried out manually, the company has invested in an S1 shot-blasting machine supplied by
AM Solutions – 3D post processing technology. This has resulted in higher operational efficiency, better quality and increased production capacity.
Aitiip is known for innovative and custom-engineered solutions for numerous 3-D printing applications, ranging from prototyping to individual finished parts. With rapidly increasing production volumes, the role of post-processing is becoming more important, as it is not only key for high-quality surface finishes but is also a significant cost factor.
Pablo Murillo, chief development officer at Aitiip, said: “Before we installed the S1, all post- operations had to be performed manually. This caused not only exceptionally high labour costs but also limited our operational flexibility. Thanks to the automatic S1 system we were able to significantly increase our production capacity.”
The recently installed S1 shot blasting machine has completely changed the post processing function in the company. After unpacking the components, produced with the powder-bed-based 3-D printing technology, are directly loaded into the shot-blasting machine. The S1, a true 2-in-1 system, performs not only the cleaning function but also creates the final surface finish in one operation with just one processing medium. The constant rotation of the work pieces during the blast operation ensures gentle processing and absolutely consistent surface finishes. This resulted not only in significant time savings but also allows processing a much larger range of 3-D printed parts.
Consistent surface finishesMr Murillo continued: “Now we can offer the parts contained in various assemblies for products already on the market as 3-D printed components. While this was unthinkable with our manual post-processing operation, thanks to the excellent and consistent surface finishes created by the S1 our products are now in full compliance with the customer specifications without requiring any additional processing. Overall, the time required for post-processing and the associated costs could be drastically reduced. The entire post-processing operation has become a lot faster, cleaner and more efficient.”
He added: “Bearing in mind that the average size of our parts allows us to 3-D print approximately 300 parts in each ‘HP cake’, it took between 4 to 6hr in a manual shot-blasting cabinet just to remove the powder. Now, the S1 automatic process takes only 30min to deliver clean, finished components.”
An additional benefit of the S1 shot-blasting machine is that it can be operated in manual as well as automatic mode with a wide range of different blast media. Mr Murillo concluded: ”AM Solutions offers in-depth knowledge in the field of surface refinement and provides professional advice right here in Spain. We appreciate this comprehensive support and, therefore, decided to plan other projects with the same equipment supplier.“