Industrializing 3D Printing Finishing. Seriously.

Defined here why the manual air blaster is NOT an option and should be used only when mandatory to not ruin the parts, the focus move on the variables that govern the automatic de-powdering/finishing.

Automation on duty.

Both machines share a similar concept: a rotating barrel to mix the parts, perforated to drain the media. What makes the difference is how the media is propelled—and its efficiency.

The barrel.

It is a tumbling drum, rotating the parts to expose them to the media jet. It can evolve into a rubber belt system (tumble belt) that makes loading/unloading easier and allows better tumbling control. The rubber belt is essential to provide the right grip for the parts to tumble correctly without damaging the 3D geometries. More part-on-part action means better rounding of the edges and faster cleaning cycles. The set point is decided according to the parts' shape.

3d hp parts ready to be processed inside the tumbleblaster.

The propeller.

Here is the biggest difference. A wheel is able to spray between 70kg (150lbs) to 110kg (240lbs) per minute of media, while a single efficient nozzle is about 15kg (33lbs) consuming about 125 CFM (3.5 m³/min) of compressed air. To reach the bottom range of a wheelblaster, you would need 5 of them. Both machines are ruled by kinetic energy law: applying it for a certain amount of time means power, and the blasting power of the wheel is unbeatable.

Controlling the power.

The other amazing feature of the wheelblaster is that it is possible to start at low speed with low media flow to not spoil the parts, test, and eventually increase the combo to find out which is working better to get the finishing desired in a timing that can be 50% less than air blasting. While the airblaster has nozzles optimized for a certain pressure and a limited variation on media flow, consumption remains still extremely high.

Wear effect.

On the nozzle, as the diameter increases due to wear, consumption follows and efficiency decreases, compromising the fluodynamics. On the wheel, the flow remains steady with only a bit of spreading of the jet over time, without compromising the efficiency of the whole system and reducing maintenance breaks for a well-set machine.

Recipe concept.

Modern 3D printers, like HP, produce with high quality consistency. This means all batches of the same parts are extremely close by any parameter. The steadiness of a modern wheelblaster allows using its advanced control system to recall all parameters (tumbling speed, wheel speed, media flow, cycle time) by one single button, improving quality and removing any bottleneck from production while the operator can spend time doing something more profitable.

3d hp parts finished inside the tumbleblaster.

Conclusion.

The main feature of 3D printing is the freedom inside the printer volume, each company using it in a different way; grounding your finishing real numbers is a matter of the data coming from your unique shop. If your company is still running on air blasting—manual or automatic—it is worth a process review. No matter the material(s) involved, the efficiency gap between compressed air and wheel technology is where some of your margin is hidden. Your first step starts with sharing your data.

Table of contents:

A) Defining the post processing problem and its impact. here.

B) Economic impact of different finishing processes. here.

C) Industrializing the finishing process. this post.

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