3D scanning aids robotic removal of AM part supports.
The use of metal additive manufacturing has revolutionised the manufacturing industry, allowing for the creation of complex and intricate parts in a faster and more cost-effective manner. However, essential post-processing of these parts introduces time and financial constraints to the overall cost-per-part that can negate the benefits of AM altogether. Support removal is the critical first step of post-processing metal AM parts, and it is a challenging one. Today, supports are still essential for part fidelity during the manufacturing process, but they must be removed to achieve the required finished product with the intended shape, features, and tolerances.
While manual support removal is still the status quo for many applications of metal AM, the transition to automated support removal (and finishing) solutions is increasing but you still need to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using Computer Numerical Control (CNC) systems versus the versatility and reliability of robots.
To support or not to support?
There is an argument that the support removal conundrum in AM will eventually be resolved by so-called support-free printing. Of course, this would be the ultimate goal, allowing complete design freedom with optimised resource efficiency, whereby raw materials and energy are only being used to make the final part and not the supports.
Unfortunately, the AM sector is not there yet, and while supports are being minimised through design, they are still, and will be for the foreseeable future, a necessity. Minimising the amount of material and energy used for supports is the right thing to do in almost every situation, but it can also compromise design freedom and hurt the desired functionality of the end-use part, which may, for example, need to be designed with filled cavities or overhangs leading to loss of light-weighting. Generative designs may also be unnecessarily constrained to get the angles needed for reduced supports.
A focus on support reduction can also affect process efficiency. For example, long parts may have to be built in a specific orientation and therefore take up more of the build plate, and stacked builds may become impractical because of the interconnecting support structures.
In short, while we should always strive for less support, they are currently still a necessary tool for most complex AM applications.