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Finishing machine supports laser-sintering process

A 3T RPD product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 24, 2009

3T RPD has announced the addition of a vibratory finishing machine to support its selective laser-sintering (SLS) process.

With the ability to generate smooth parts with minimal time and cost being added to the project, 3T offers customers a full service capability from start to finish.

While SLS can generate complex and durable prototype parts and production components, the nature of the build process means that parts have a certain amount of surface roughness when they come out of the machine.

This may be perfectly acceptable to some customers, but others want parts to have a smoother, more refined finish, or require them to be coloured, painted or vacuum metalised.

3T's team of model makers use a variety of in-house finishing techniques to produce parts that are often comparable to the final manufactured item.

One of the primary tasks required before any finishing work can be carried out is to 'dress' the part to remove surface roughness.

Traditionally done by hand, this 'rubbing down' can be extremely labour and cost intensive.

The acquisition of this finishing machine reduces the number of hours spent hand finishing the parts, enabling 3T's team to focus on the finer finishing requirements.

The gentle action of the vibratory process smoothes the surface of multiple batch parts simultaneously in reduced timescales.

This provides a higher quality finish either for end use or as a preparation for the application of a coat of primer or colour-matched paint, vacuum metalising or resin impregnation.

The degree to which the parts are smoothed can be controlled by the amount of time they spend in the machine.

On average, a two-hour cycle is sufficient for quite large batches of small to medium-sized parts, which is a considerable reduction from individual hand finishing.

The parts can then go back to 3T's team for further specialist finishing, with the resulting models being used in functional testing, assembly trials, product demonstrations and launches, or in marketing photography.

Alternatively, they can be despatched direct to the customer without any further work required, which is of particular benefit for applications such as fluid flow work.

Unlike more aggressive tumbling machines, this process can finish some of the internal features of components, such as holes and voids (depending on the geometry).

The only limitations to the process are that the largest size part that can fit into the machine is approximately 500mm x 300mm x 300mm, and very small features or delicate geometries may not be suitable as they could be damaged or lost.

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