What goes on behind the scenes of 3D printing production? First, you upload your 3D file and choose the material you want it printed in. Then, i.materialise determines if it’s printable and plans the printing build. Since the company receives many prints at once, it has to plan how it will print many models together at one time. For that, Magics software is used to place models in a three-dimensional space, “nesting” them together. Then printing can commence once the size, technology, and volume of the build are determined. There’s also a mandatory post-printing cool down period that can take up to 2 days. The exact post-production steps depend greatly on the material being used, too.
i.materialise explains how materials differ in post-print production:
“Polyamide 3D prints are dug out of the un-sintered powder and cleaned with high-pressure air guns. Support structures for resin 3D prints need to be cut away, ceramic prints need to go into an oven, multicolor prints need to be superglued, silver prints need to be taken out of their mold.”
Over 100 different finishing options (such as dyeing, polishing, gold-plating, and coating) are offered by i.materialise, and these require more time. And last but not least in the production process, a final quality check is performed and your order is packaged and shipped.
Polyamide Priority prints, which require no finishing, are guaranteed within 48 hours by i.materialise. And as for prints in other materials, now we know a little bit more about why these take longer. Discuss this story in the 3D Printing Production Speed forum thread on 3DPB.com.