Metal 3D Printing – How To Get The Exact Finishing Of 3D Printed Parts You Want

Metal 3D Printing is a technology that has been widely used nowadays, its applications ranging through from aerospace, racing, MIM components to gas and steam turbines. so the first question you might be wondering is why would people be looking to finish a part in the first place? and what’s the desire to change the finish of a metal printed part off of the printer.

When a metal printed part is functional and ready to go, but occasionally there’s a need to optimize that surface or modify it in some fashion. it could be a number of benefits like contact fatigue, metal contact, lowering friction. and in the sense of ergonomics, something you’ll wear or handle. there might be a desire to have a smoother surface or a better touch. other reasons could be flow dynamics, roughness generates turbulence, which is not good for flow characteristics, depending on a steam turbine blade, there is also cleanliness. cleanliness is an important thing for biomechanical or for equipment that needs to go through wash down cycles. roughness and those voids at a microscopic level, ten to act as initiation sites for contamination. by removing those, you can reduce that. you can also make your cleaning cycles more efficient. last but not least, aesthetics. you want to have a different look, it’s could be matte or shiny.

What Options Are Available Out There For Metal 3d Parts Finish? 

There’s a lot of different finishes: for ports that get entered, you have the option of doing what people called green sandy or the industry calls it a green sanding. take the before harden part, you’re able to manually remove things, that’s good for parts with minor little flaws. it could also bring the roughness down, but it is a manual process, you probably don’t want to do it on a high volume. hand polishing is an option, not great for high-volume, but you can give you a nice bright surface, you got to be a little bit careful with it because it’s also a bit of a metal smearing operation, you might hide some things if it’s a dynamically loaded part. but it’s very effective. the traditional abrasive mechanical mass finishing operations can take material off, give you any range of finishes.

What Are The Benefits For Different Types Of Metal 3D Printed Parts?

For example, herringbone gear is very hard to machine, 3D printing is an interesting way of doing it, and a gear or power transfer mechanism has metal contact, you’ll benefit from reductions in frictions, which is then going to turn into contact fatigue, increases the contact with heat resistance specifically, it’ll make these last longer. reductions in friction will also increase efficiency. system efficiency increases in gear applications for a rear axle for example. spur gear increases 15 to 20 percent on that gear mesh, big benefits down the efficiency side, then it’ll reduce wear and eliminate break-in cycle. and the another perfect example is the rims. they are is fluid applications or fluid interacting applications. the first benefits for these would be relative to the actual flow properties themselves, by reducing the surface roughness, we can reduce the turbulence that’s on there, improve what they call the laminar flow properties. things will flow more smoothly, you won’t create as much agitation in that liquid, it can be beneficial for a variety of reasons. we’ll also have a nice benefit on the cleanliness side of things, there won’t be any small little parsley sensory elements, dissociating into the liquid. it will stay clean, it will stay robust. the consistency will not change.