GUIDE TO ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
Outline
01 Introduction
02 Additive Manufacturing Printing Processes
03 Additive Manufacturing Materials
04 Ideal Use of Each Additive Manufacturing Technology
05 Best Practices for Setting Up Your 3D Model
06 Additive Manufacturing Products
07 Additive Manufacturing Post-Processing
08 Create Your Next Project with ProtoCAM
01 Introduction
What is Additive Manufacturing?
Additive manufacturing (AM) is the process of building objects by creating successive
layers of a material. It includes the processes of 3D printing, rapid prototyping, freeform
fabrication, and more.
Additive manufacturing creates objects by adding material layer-by-layer until
completion. Think of how a house of bricks is built—additive manufacturing builds
objects in a similar way, starting with very small pieces of material and combining them,
layer-by-layer, to form a larger finished product.
Additive Manufacturing has even recently been used to “build” an entire house
Why Use Additive Manufacturing?
Additive manufacturing is an ideal approach for making items out of plastic, metal,
ceramic, and other materials. AM specializes in creating objects with complicated
geometries or manufacturing complexities that traditional manufacturing methods
can’t produce. It allows for the rapid production of parts, both finished products and
prototypes. It reduces the cost of low-volume production runs. It also creates parts
with complex shapes that can’t be made by traditional “subtractive” processes such as
machining, which carves objects out of solid blocks.
Additive manufacturing can also be used as a complement to traditional manufacturing
processes. When used in conjunction with injection molding, tool and die machining,
and other processes, it improves product quality and expands the range of what you can
make.
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Example: The Benefits of Additive Manufacturing
Recently, a rocket with 3D printed parts was successfully sent into space. By reworking the ducting
system using AM parts, United Launch Alliance was able to reduce the assembly from 140 parts to only
16, which delivered a cost savings of 57%.
Industries Currently Using AM
Additive manufacturing is common in many industries, with new applications being
developed every month. There’s no limit to how AM can be applied.
Here are some of the most common industries served:
Transportation: Parts for automobiles, aircraft, and railcars. Parts include titanium car exhausts,
lightweight aviation plastics, and more.
Medical: Additive manufacturing excels at creating the design elements used in medical devices, such
as curves, internal chambers, and channels. It is an ideal way to make everything from prototypes to
finished products.
Consumer Goods: Highly stylized jewelry, home décor, personal hygiene items, and more.
Manufacturing: Replacement parts for industrial equipment to extend the life of machines and to
reduce the downtime and costs associated with unplanned maintenance.
Electronics: Ultra-precise plastic and metal components for computing, communications, and more.
The Additive Manufacturing Process: From Idea to Product
The process of making an object involves three main steps: modeling, printing, and
finishing.
1. Modeling creates a computerized 3D design of an object with a computer-aided design (CAD)
program. Then, depending on the process chosen, this design may be converted to an STL file. The
digital model is finalized, and the design file is loaded into a 3D printing machine where it guides the
printing process.
2. In Printing, machines use additive processes to create a three-dimensional object. There are many
printing processes, each with its own strengths. The common printing processes are described in the
next section.
3. During Finishing, printed objects are prepared for use. This may involve rinsing, polishing, painting,
smoothing or other tasks. One of the main considerations when selecting an additive manufacturing
service bureau is the quality and level of finish they can provide.
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02 Additive Manufacturing
Printing Processes
Depending on the specific industry and application, a variety of AM printing processes
can be utilized. The choice of process depends on the material used and complexity of
the end product.
Here are the most common AM printing processes:
Stereolithography
An UV laser traces a pattern on the surface of liquid photopolymer resin, solidifying the
resin into a pre-programmed shape. Then the hardened layer of resin is withdrawn into
the liquid, and the process is repeated to add another layer to the part. The process is
repeated until the part is complete.
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
A laser traces a pattern on powdered material (usually nylon) to fuse the material into a
solid structure. New powder is applied atop the hardened material, and the process is
repeated to add layers to the part until completion.
PolyJet
Think of an inkjet printer for polymers: The printer shoots droplets of photopolymer
onto a build tray and each droplet is instantly hardened with ultraviolet light. Droplet by
droplet, the printer “builds up” a part.
Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)
Think of a hot glue gun: A long thread of plastic is fed into the heated nozzle of the
printing machine. The nozzle melts the material and deposits it on a build tray, layer by
layer, to “build up” a part. FFF is also known as FDM, or Fused Deposition Modeling™, a
trademark of Stratasys Inc.
Urethane Castings
Additive manufacturing is the preferred way to create master patterns for urethane
casting. Using the techniques above, a master pattern can be created faster and
less expensively than with Computer Numeric Control (CNC) machining. Additive
manufacturing also allows for more complex master patterns—shapes, holes, and
grooves that are beyond the capabilities of CNC.
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Metal Prototyping
Additive manufacturing enables a variety of metal prototype techniques such as
metal casting and direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). The best technique depends
on the project’s manufacturing priorities:
Metal casting
Ideal for rapidly creating short-run metal parts with high accuracy, durability, and quality.
DMLS
Ideal for rapidly creating highly complex, intricate 3D parts that would be difficult or impossible to
produce with traditional subtractive methods.
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03 Additive Manufacturing Materials
A tremendous variety of materials can be used in additive manufacturing. This variety
offers countless applications for AM across all industries, and creates many advantages
for companies that use and produce AM parts.
The list below introduces the common classes of materials used in additive
manufacturing. Within each class, there are many variations of materials available,
including branded products.
Stereolithography
• Clear UV resin
• Off-white UV resin
Selective Laser Sintering
• Powdered nylon
• Powdered nylon with glass fill
PolyJet
• Rigid plastics, choice of color
• Flexible plastics, choice of color
• Custom plastics, tailored to the production spec
Urethane Castings
• Plastics to replicate the production materials.
• Many colors and durometers (hardness) are available.
Metal (for casting)
• Aluminum
• Stainless steel
FFF (FDM®)
• Extruded ABS plastics
• Polycarbonate
• ULTEM
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04 Ideal Uses of Each Additive
Manufacturing Technology
Each additive manufacturing technology has an ideal application. To select the best
technology for your project, consider the part’s intended use.
Intended use is made of a combination of elements: dimensional precision, surface
finish, durability, flexibility, opacity, and color. Production speed and cost are also
important variables that can influence not only which method is best, but which method
is possible.
While each project and part must be evaluated on its own, here are some tips on what
each technique is best for:
Stereolithography
When aesthetics, details and dimensional tolerance are critical.
Stereolithography offers the tightest dimensional tolerances of any additive
manufacturing technology. Published tolerances for stereolithography (SLA) are
+/- 0.005″ (0.127mm) for the first inch, and an additional 0.002″ for each additional
inch. Part geometry and build orientation can also have an effect on tolerances. If
dimensional tolerance is a critical factor, SLA is typically the best choice.
Laser sintering
When mechanical strength is more important than aesthetics.
Laser sintering provides good dimensional tolerances as well. The typical published
tolerances for a non-metallic laser sintered part are +/- 0.007″ (0.1778mm) for the initial
inch, and 0.003″ (0.0762mm) for each additional inch.
Industrial 3D printing with PolyJet
When details, mechanical strength, and aesthetics are essential.
Surface and dimensional quality is nearly as good and occasionally better than SLA. In
some PolyJet materials strength rivals, and in some geometries exceeds, that of SLS.
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PolyJet
Stereolithography Laser Sintering
3D Printing
Brief Description Laser cured resin Laser cured powder Sprayed material
Accuracy Great Fair Good
Clear or white, can be White, can be dyed or
Color dyed or painted painted
46 colors
Opaque to nearly glass-
Clarity clear
Opaque Opaque to translucent
Surface Finish Smooth, can be sanded Somewhat coarse Smooth to rubber-like
Durability Fair, a bit brittle Good Good
Water Resistance Good to excellent Poor, absorbent Good
USP Available No No
Prototype copying with RTV Molding and Urethane Casting
Urethane casting from RTV molds is an additional technique to create near-perfect
copies of an original prototype.
First, a stereolithography prototype is created. Next, an RTV (room temperature
vulcanization) mold is made from that prototype. Third, urethane casting material is
injected into the mold to create the copy of the prototype.
The use cases for copying prototypes include:
• Small-batch manufacturing
• Pre-production parts
• Engineering design verification
• Functional prototypes
• Alpha and beta builds
Choose this technique for short-run production when the final part will be injection-
molded plastic.
We’ll help you choose the right technique
ProtoCAM’s engineers have decades of experience and up-to-date knowledge of recent
innovations. We leverage this expertise to help you evaluate, define, and complete your
project in the best possible way. We also help you reduce costs by choosing a process
that will deliver the best performance, as efficiently as possible, at a competitive price.
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05 Best Practices for Setting
Up Your 3D Model
Additive manufacturing machines build parts by following the instructions of 3D
models. A 3D model is simply a computerized, three-dimensional design of an object.
The 3D model is created with a CAD software program, and often converted to an STL
(stereolithography) file. The STL file is loaded into a 3D printing machine where it guides
the printing process.
We accept files from any CAD package, provided the geometry is exported into an STL
file format, the standard for the rapid prototyping industry.
STL is an ideal file type because it approximates the surface of a parametric solid model
with a mesh of triangles. In addition to STL files, we also accept these file formats:
• Pro/ENGINEER (*.PRT.*)
• SolidWorks (*.SLDPRT)
• STEP (*.STEP/*.STP)
• Binary Parasolid (*.X_B)
• Parasolid (*.X_T)
• Neutral (*.NEU)
• Rhino 3D (*.3DM)
• IGES (*.IGES/*.IGS)
Here is a detailed guide to preparing CAD files for rapid prototyping.
3D Model Design Considerations
It is important to consider every detail of your 3D model. The checklist below will help
you make sure you’ve given thought to every angle.
• Do any surfaces require special tolerances?
• Are there any holes that have to be reamed to a specific size?
• Do any holes need inserts?
• Have secondary use cases been considered?
• Will this be a printed part or a casting?
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Specialty Considerations
Height
Height is the biggest contributor to the cost of making a part. Most parts are built
using a .004″ layer thickness, or a .002″ layer thickness for a high-resolution build.
The 3D file is “sliced” into layers, traced, and solidified layer by layer on the SLA
machine. Height adds layers, and each layer adds production time. For example, a
12″ part (3,000 layers) takes longer to build than a 6″ part (1,500 layers) and costs
more.
Design Tip: In your 3D model, orient the part to have the smallest possible z-height, or consider
the cost/benefits of allowing ProtoCAM to produce the prototype in two pieces which will be glued
together.
Volume
Volume of material is the second largest contributor to the cost of a part. Generally,
the larger the part, the greater the volume of material needed and the greater the
expense.
Design Tip: To reduce material volume and lower a part’s cost, prototypes can be created hollow
rather than solid. You can also reduce the thickness of your part’s walls.
Complexity
Complex parts require detailed finishing work, which can add production time and
expense. When a part comes off an SLA machine, excess resin and support material
must be removed. The prototype is then post-cured in a UV oven and generally bead-
blasted to provide a consistent finish.
Depending on the complexity of the part shape, such as small details and number of
supports, it can take anywhere from several hours to several days to sand the piece
to presentation level.
We’ll help you perfect your design
Our engineers always orient parts to give you the best quality production in the
shortest amount of time. No matter what your scheduling or budget constraints,
contact ProtoCAM and we’ll see what we can do for you.
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06 Additive Manufacturing Products
Thousands of products are made by additive manufacturing, and more are created every
day. Consumer products include toys, jewelry, art, and even shoes. Industrial products
are wide-ranging: jet engine fuel nozzles, carbon fiber fan blades, heat exchangers, and
more.
It seems like new materials for additive manufacturing are available every week. The
field is growing fast with specialty plastics, metal composites, glass, and ceramics. Even
asteroid matter has been used for 3D printing.
Custom Medical Devices
Examples of specialty medical devices include Invisalign® braces, hearing aids, and
custom dental crowns. Additive manufacturing also excels at creating components to
work within larger medical devices, as seen in this case study of our work with Coapt,
LLC, on the COMPLETE CONTROL™ for upper-extremity prostheses.
A new technique to print complex metallic architectures in “midair,” without using
support structures, was recently demonstrated by Harvard’s Wyss Institute for
Biologically Inspired Engineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and
Applied Sciences (SEAS). This technique promises to expand the range of medical
devices made with additive manufacturing.
Motorcycles
The world’s first 3D-printed motorcycle was recently created using an aluminum-
magnesium-scandium alloy.
Sporting Equipment
Additive manufacturing is especially well-suited for creating new, innovative sporting
goods. We are proud to have helped build the Ball Cannon, the first robotic football
launcher for backyard use.
ProtoCAM also helped create golf accessories for UpGrade Golf Systems, including the
UpGrade Ball Tray and the Range Divider.
Toys
There’s no limit to the galaxy of toys that additive manufacturing can produce.
ProtoCAM has created hundreds of toy prototypes for clients including Transformers,
K’NEX, and Hasbro. Other notable ProtoCAM projects include action figures, puzzles,
vehicles, construction toys, Pez dispensers, and Star Wars-branded items.
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Consumer Goods
ProtoCAM has worked with many inventors, engineers, and designers to bring new
consumer goods to market. Many inventors bring only a sketch, and partner with us
from design through production.
Most products are created as prototypes, and later mass produced by injection molding,
plastic thermoforming, or other processes. However, many consumer products can be
produced by AM and marketed directly.
There’s no limit to what additive manufacturing can do
All of these examples show that additive manufacturing is an essential part of any
designer’s tool kit. If you have an idea, contact us to bring it to life.
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07 Additive Manufacturing
Post-Processing
Post-processing is the last step in the process of additive manufacturing. In this step,
parts receive finishing touches such as smoothing and painting. Post-processing is also
known as finishing.
Why is post-processing important?
Post-processing improves the quality of parts and ensures that they meet their design
specifications. The finishing process can enhance a part’s surface characteristics,
geometric accuracy, aesthetics, mechanical properties, and more. For samples and
prototypes, this can mean the difference between a sale or a loss. For production parts,
finishing creates a part that is ready to use.
Pro Tip: Consider post-processing capacity
When placing your order, it’s important to consider an additive manufacturer’s finishing capacity. Some
companies dedicate only a small area of their facility to finishing. This can lead to expensive post-
processing, outsourcing, or bottlenecks at the finishing stage of production. It can also be an incentive to
rush through finishing.
At ProtoCAM, 80% of our facility is dedicated to post-processing. We offer all types of finishing processes,
and make sure every finishing job is done right. Our large finishing capacity ensures that your parts are
made quickly and with attention to detail.
Common Finishing Processes
Many different post-processing techniques exist. Additive manufacturing companies
often specialize in certain types of finishing, and may even have their own proprietary
finishing processes. Proper finishing leads to prototypes that create new orders, and
dependable performance parts that create repeat customers.
Common finishing techniques are presented below, as well as proprietary techniques
found only at ProtoCAM. These techniques may be slightly modified for specialty
materials.
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Natural
The natural finish is the most basic finish. It cleans and sands the places where support
structures held the part in the AM machine. This finish does not affect the part’s
geometry, and is ideal for parts with small features.
• Results: Sharp details.
• Available for: SLA, SLS, PolyJet 3D printing, FDM
• Best used for: Parts with small features and precise geometries.
Standard
This is the most common finish. It begins with the natural finish, described above. Next,
the part is bead-blasted to create a uniform matte surface.
• Results: Uniform smoothness for good aesthetics. A professional look and feel.
• Available for: SLA
• Best used for: Uniform matte prototypes. Production parts with average aesthetic requirements.
Standard + External
This finish begins with the bead-blasted standard finish, described above. Next, the
part’s exterior surface is sanded to remove build lines or stair stepping, creating an
extremely smooth, low-friction surface. This finish is ideal for parts that slide against
another surface. It is also recommended for high-quality prototypes.
• Results: Extremely smooth outer surface and superior aesthetics.
• Available for: SLA, PolyJet
• Best used for: Production parts needing a low-friction surface. High-quality prototypes.
Standard + All
This finish begins with the bead-blasted standard finish, and adds sanding over both
the interior and exterior of the part. It is ideal for making master patterns for casting or
other types of foundry molds. The completely smooth surface makes it easy to remove
a master pattern from the mold without the pattern catching on build lines or stair
stepping.
• Results: Completely smooth surface, inside and out.
• Available for: SLA, PolyJet
• Best used for: Foundry patterns.
Primed
For this finish, a part is coated with primer after the Standard + External finishing
process. Two coats are applied, with a round of light sanding in between, if necessary.
Primed parts are smooth and fully prepped for your in-house paint department, saving
hours of labor.
• Results: Exceptional smoothness, paint-ready parts.
• Available for: SLA, SLS, PolyJet
• Best used for: Paint-ready pieces for your in-house paint department or specialty painting contractor.
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Presentation
This finish delivers a completed, ready-to-show part. It can be brought to a trade show,
presented to a client, or used right away in photos and video. Here at ProtoCAM, we
paint the part for a final production look. We mix automotive-grade paints to create
finely tuned colors for an exact match.
• Results: A fully-painted, ready-to-show display part with the highest aesthetics.
• Available for: SLA, SLS, PolyJet
• Best used for: Painted, show-ready pieces.
Clear
For clear SLA parts, the part is sanded where supports were used during production.
A coat of clear urethane is applied to the sanded areas to restore a finished shine. The
clarity of the part may vary in sections, and build lines and some stair stepping may
remain.
• Results: A clear part with a basic look-through finish and some opacity.
• Available for: SLA
• Best used for: Clear proof-of-concept prototypes or functional finished parts.
Improved Clear
For improved clarity, build lines and stair stepping are removed from the part’s surface.
Then the entire part is sanded and a clear coat is applied.
• Results: A clear part with a high level of surface consistency and clarity.
• Available for: SLA
• Best used for: Clear, show-ready pieces.
Clear Bottle: A Proprietary ProtoCAM Finishing Process
Bottles and similar parts with small entries traditionally present a finishing challenge:
their large internal surfaces usually remain matte and cloudy. But now with ProtoCAM’s
proprietary Clear Bottle finish, customers can achieve exceptional clarity on even the
most complex pieces.
The Clear Bottle finish almost perfectly replicates the look of a mass production plastic
bottle. It has a truly clear, see-through surface on both the interior and the exterior.
• Results: Exceptional transparency for complex parts, bottles, and other items with small entries and
large internal surfaces.
• Available for: SLA
• Best used for: Crystal-clear prototypes and samples. Ideal for bottles, containers, complex clear
tubes, and vessels.
USP Class VI
This finish ensures that medical-grade parts and prototypes conform to USP Class VI
certification. These parts are safe for in vivo use.
• Results: A USP Class VI-certified part that is safe for in vivo use.
• Available for: SLA
• Best used for: Medical-device prototypes and production parts.
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08 Create Your Next Project
with ProtoCAM
Trust ProtoCAM for Your Next Project.
We’ll guide you through the manufacturing process, from design to printing to finishing.
If you are uncertain about the best way to build your project, we’ll help you make the
right choices and avoid costly mistakes. Every day we talk to people who are new to
additive manufacturing, and we help them turn their ideas into 3D printed parts.
Experts Welcome
If you have finished design files and only need printing, we’re here for you too. We work
with many expert designers to provide top-notch production and finishing services. In
this case, we’ll simply take your instructions, load your design files, and start building.
Get the Highest Quality Parts from ProtoCAM
If you wish, our engineers will help you adjust your product’s design to make it easier
and less expensive to mass produce. Often, a few adjustments to the design will
increase your profits while maintaining or even enhancing the product’s functionality.
Request a quote here to get started—because the quality of your parts depends on the
quality of your partner.
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