Page 16 - 3D Metal Printing Spring 2018

3D Automated Support Generation
for us when using e-Stage for Metal to design our supports. The scaffold-like sup- ports developed by e-Stage contain a great deal of perforations that allow for easy powder escape and prevent entrapment between the part, the build plate and the supports. Should powder become trapped, cutting the part off of the build plate exposes the trapped powder and renders it unusable. With e-Stage we avoid that situation and minimize waste.
“e-Stage also makes it simpler for us to train new associates on support design,” Bentley continues. “It’s very intuitive and user-friendly, removing any guesswork. Once we verify the part orientation for the build, the software automatically gen- erates all of the supports needed through- out the part. It’s all done at once based on the overhang orientations. In the end we experience very few build errors related to supports.”
Significant Time Savings
In its promotional material, Materialise
says that users of e-Stage can expect as much as a 90 percent decrease in the time required to design supports compared to manual; as much as a 50 percent reduc- tion in the time needed for support removal; and a 20 percent reduction in part-finishing time.
“Support-removal and finishing time drops because the supports, while strong, are easily crushable and allow our asso- ciates to use simple tools to remove them,” Bentley adds. “Typically they only need pliers or snips to remove the supports, and thus leave behind minimal burrs, minimizing finishing requirements.
“This type of software,” he summarizes, “becomes more important and impactful as part designs become more complex, where more supports are needed. As evi- denced by the work we’re seeing, e-Stage means that we never take in a part that might stump our designers on how best to design the supports. Since e-Stage per- forms that task for us, the designers can focus their time and energy, and expertise,
New software becomes more impactful as part designs become more complex, requiring more supports.
in other areas. In the end, support design now typically takes minutes instead of hours.” 3DMP
14 | 3D METAL PRINTING • SPRING 2018
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