Process-integrated post-processing of high-precision additive manufactured metal parts

Nanogrande （NG）是一家结合增材制造、纳米技术和机器学习的高精度金属增材制造（AM）领域的解决方案提供商。他们开发的3D打印机结合了功率分层技术和激光烧结技术，为高精度零件提供了独特的设计自由和材料选择。然而，大多数为NG市场生产的微型金属部件都需要后处理步骤。由于似乎不需要额外的工艺步骤，部署后处理可以通过平衡层高度和抛光过程来减少生成的金属微部件的表面粗糙度，从而减少总体制造时间。在其他方法中，电化学抛光（EP）似乎是最合适的后处理方法。然而，EP与这种新型高精度3D打印方法的结合仍未得到探索，NG缺乏此类后处理所需的专业知识。提出的项目旨在找到层厚度，打印速度和抛光之间的权衡。为了在合理的制造时间内保持高质量的零件，应达到最佳的光滑和平坦表面。其次，该项目旨在获得更多关于印刷技术及其与后期处理的相互作用的知识。为了巩固其独特的市场地位，NG改善其3D打印工艺流程并提高其专业知识是关键。拟议的项目旨在通过探索NG打印过程中的后处理集成和研究沉积过程来支持这一使命。由于NG总部位于蒙特里萨，扩展和改进他们的专利3D打印技术将确保他们在定制金属产品制造领域的领先市场地位，并可能创造新的就业机会，从而为加拿大整体带来好处。

Nanogrande (NG) is a solution provider in the high-precision metal additive manufacturing (AM) field, combining AM, nanotechnology and machine learning. They provide unique freedom of design and material choice for high-precision parts by their developed 3D printer combining its Power Layering technology with laser sintering. However, most of the generated micro metal parts for NG's markets require post-processing steps. As additional process steps appear to be undesired, deploying post-processing could have an additional benefit of reducing the overall manufacturing time by balancing layer height and the polishing process to reduce the surface roughness of the generated metal micro-parts. Among other methods, electrochemical polishing (EP) seems the most suitable candidate for post-processing such parts. Nevertheless, EP is still unexplored in combination with this novel high-precision 3D printing method and NG is lacking the required expertise on such post-processes.The proposed project aims to find a trade-off between layer thickness, printing speed and polishing. An optimum should be achieved to get smooth and flat surfaces to maintain high quality parts at reasonable fabrication time. Secondary, the project aims to acquire more knowledge of the printing technology and its interaction with post-processes. To solidify their unique market position it is key for NG to improve their 3D printing process-flow and to increase their expertise. The proposed project aims to support this mission by exploring post-processing integration in NG's printing process and study the deposition process. Since NG is based in Montréal, expanding and improving their patented 3D printing technology will secure their leading market position in the customized metal product manufacturing field and could lead to the creation of new jobs thereby providing a benefit to Canada overall.