Now Almco is offering a production tool to manufacturers worldwide to help get their products to market more quickly and more cost effectively, and it all happens once a part has been created via the RCWB-36E.
Almco says they’ve developed a device to break out the bottle neck in the rapid prototyping work flow — the removal of support material without leaving residual solution lurking within the layers of a part printed via fused deposition modeling (FDM).
Using traditional methods to remove support materials following an FDM usually involves a cleaning station of heated sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution and water at about 150°F. A circulator in such systems keeps the solution moving for cleaning action.
Almco says that, depending on the size of a part and its geometry, post-processing can take anywhere from 4 to 15 hours using conventional methods, and that once parts are finished, support removal solution has to be removed which may have saturated the part before it can enter service.
A part processed using their RCWB-36E machine takes about 90 minutes, and there is no additional process for removing solution trapped withing the part, and they add that a “blow-off” option can also be included in the system to speed drying time further.
Almco says this new device features a large part cabinet system of 30” x 30” x 36”, can be used with off-the-shelf solutions for all systems, and can take care of support removal in sixty minutes with rinse and blow off options available.
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Do you work in a major additive manufacturing concern? What do you think of this support removal processing cabinet from Almco? Let us know in the Almco Post-Processing forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the cabinet washer in action in the video below.