One thing that gets mentioned over and over with metal 3D printing is post-processing. For metal printing, expect to see a trend towards a greater focus on post-processing, as this is a critical step that affects whether you can actually go into mass production. You can optimize a production process into serial production all you want, but if the subsequent post-processing is not up to the same high standard, there will be no real serial production. The second trend is mass production in the space industry. As the press writes, several rocket companies have successfully conducted hot fire tests, and we are only a few months away from launching a rocket into space with a fully additively manufactured combustion chamber. This will be the start of the additive manufacturing series of combustion chambers and other important launch vehicle components. Furthermore, mass production at scale will make the issue of the ecological footprint of additive manufacturing even more pressing. Energy saving potential in additive manufacturing, powder recycling, and carbon footprint issues will not only be an image issue but will also become economically important topics for additive manufacturing companies.
At present, companies entering the field of 3D printing are more focused on materials or printers themselves, and there is not much research on post-processing. Because post-processing uses traditional techniques, such as grinding, polishing, coloring, coating, etc., the corresponding techniques are very mature.
The post-processing process used by JR is called steam smoothing, which is to heat the chemical solvent into steam to make it evenly cover the surface of the printed part, and make the surface of the printed part smooth through a chemical reaction. It is suitable for thermoplastic materials. Among the current 3D printing materials, it is mainly applied to nylon parts. Anyone who has a certain understanding of 3D printing knows that the surface of 3D printing nylon parts has a frosted grainy feel. After smoothing with steam, the surface of nylon parts can become very smooth. This technology is actually not difficult to implement, and it is often used in post-processing. The simplest steam smoothing can be achieved with a steamer that is usually used for cooking, and the operator's experience is more important.
So it seems that we have done a good job of turning the original steamer into a steam box, adding sensors and microcontrollers to make the whole process more precise and easier to control. In fact, this is only part of our work. What we are really doing is integration and automation, which is also the development trend of 3D printing post-processing.
In the field of traditional manufacturing, the end-to-end automated workflow has been very well established. Injection molding, CNC machining, and forging processes are all fully automated in mass production. 3D printing does not currently have such a high degree of automation. For example, when steam smoothing the printed parts, it is necessary to clean the printed parts first, which is usually done manually by workers. After steam smoothing, if coloring is required, it needs to be manually operated.
Therefore, the core work of JR in the past few years is to integrate and automate the post-processing process. Now our system can realize a series of post-processing tasks such as powder removal, chemical vapor smoothing, coloring, part sorting, and quality inspection, and it is fully automated.
Next, we may make efforts in two directions. One is to integrate our post-processing system and 3D printing system to achieve real end-to-end automated production. The other is to be compatible with more materials, including metal and thermosetting Material.