Additive Manufacturing Digital Thread Now Extends through Post-Printing

PostProcess Technologies, the pioneer of automated and intelligent post-printing solutions for industrial 3D printing, announced today its CONNECT3D™ software platform, an expansion of its AUTOMAT3D™ software offering. PostProcess AUTOMAT3D software powers intelligent removal of 3D support materials and surface finishing. The new CONNECT3D platform extends this capability into the cloud for the first time. This Industry 4.0 solution allows the digital thread for smart additive manufacturing to move beyond design and print, all the way through to the final post-printing step.

CONNECT3D will be on demonstration at the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) conference, April 8 to 12 in St. Louis.

PostProcess CONNECT3D software platform is the first in the world to address end-to-end additive manufacturing within the digital thread. The digital thread refers to the digital chain that collects and connects data along each components unique path. Today, in additive manufacturing, data is captured and connected in the design and printing phases. The digital thread for a 3D part is cut off prior to its final finished stage. CONNECT3D links the finishing, or post-printing stage, to the parts digital thread.

The CONNECT3D software platform is fully adaptable to the customers needs. CONNECT3D allows PostProcess solutions to leverage the native CAD-file or 3D printer sliced files to automatically define the necessary requirements and algorithms for post-printing. The digital thread allows CONNECT3D to become progressively smarter and more efficient in the decision-making required to deliver optimal post-printing results.

CONNECT3D is extremely versatile, designed for a wide range of materials including metals and polymers, and imports most native CAD formats. PostProcess and its AUTOMAT3D software already increases throughput and reduces cycle times which enable much more consistent, customer-ready final parts at scale. CONNECT3D further accelerates both of these factors.

"Currently, the concept of the ‘digital thread within additive manufacturing ends once parts are printed. Conventional finishing processes rely on tribal knowledge and hand tools so there is no ability to collect or transfer data," said Daniel Hutchinson, Founder & CTO of PostProcess. "The lack of transferable data limits the post-print process, but also fundamentally weakens the design process. Design input decisions, such as part orientation, are undermined due to a lack of downstream process data. Critical areas such as maintaining strength along a preferred axis and minimizing the amount of support material are jeopardized. An intuitive process, one that learns from itself, was not viable before today. Now, with CONNECT3D, PostProcess has brought the first solution to the industry that connects the digital thread through the post-printing step. This is revolutionary for additive manufacturing in its entirety, not just post-printing."