Washington Mills Ceramics recognizes the new challenges for additive manufacturing, or 3D printing companies, in turning complex and intricate 3D printed parts into perfectly finished parts. 3D printing technology hosts an abundance of benefits, but the question commonly left unanswered is, “How do we finish 3D printed parts to the desired finish for use in various industries?”
Washington Mills Ceramics has created ceramic and plastic media formulations for finishing 3D printed products using a proprietary blend of internally developed and engineered abrasive materials. Our high density products offer the highest metal cutting ability of ANY ceramic or plastic media manufactured. Click here for a detailed specification sheet on 3D finishing media for 3D printed parts.
Washington Mills Ceramics has responded by providing parts finishing services to 3D printing companies in need of assistance in finding the right media product and process to properly finish the parts.
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Washington Mills Ceramics can save 3D printing companies time and money by conducting the trial finishing of a 3D printed part in our parts processing laboratory. Our experienced laboratory technicians can determine the best media, equipment, and processing time for a desired finish. Our parts processing laboratory has the capability of finishing both plastic and metal 3D printed parts. Washington Mills Ceramics’ laboratory has the ability to finish 3D printed parts with various media formulations using different finishing equipment . Through the use of our specially designed plastic and ceramic media, in combination with our high energy centrifugal disc machine, we are able to determine what finishing process will work best for that 3D printed part.
Media:
The surface finish of metal 3D printed parts is unlike any other traditionally manufactured metal parts. The powder metal used in the laser sintering additive manufacturing process is a very hard alloy which can only be finished with a certain type of media. Due to the nature of this alloy, it was necessary to create a unique media formulation to work specifically with 3D printed parts, in order to produce the best finish without excessive metal removal while maintaining the life of the media. The new formulations for 3D printed parts is a ceramic media, known as DURAMEDIA® 3DCM.
Equipment:
In addition to the standard finishing equipment, we own and operate a 60L high-speed centrifugal disk machine that can finish rough and unrefined 3D printed parts in less than half the time of traditional machines.
Contact Us:
For more information or to begin testing your 3D printed parts with our custom designed ceramic and plastic formulations, please call 888-676-1846 or email ceramicsales@washingtonmills.com