Hirtisation – post-treatment of 3D-printed components

At first it is easy to get the impression that additive manufacturing, AM, is a process that does not require any post-treatment operations. But, most AM-processes requires additional steps to reach product tolerances, microstructure, residual stresses or just simply cleaning the part from support structures after printing.

To remove support structures and also improve the surface quality, can be time consuming and difficult to realize and in many cases not reproducible, especially when it comes to internal and conformal channels.

The latest technology

In the Application Center for Additive Manufacturing, we have a hirtisation equipment from RENA Technologies named H3000 consisting of a chemical / electrochemical process for post-processing of metal AM components based on a combination of electrochemical pulse methods and hydrodynamic flow. The system is capable of processing materials such as Fe-based materials, Al-, Ti-, Ni-alloys.

The H3000 can process parts up to 300x300x150 mm and weight up to 12 kg. The process media is designed in such way to be optimized for each material grade. Currently, at the AM Center we have the possibility to process Al-alloys, Fe- and stainless steel materials, and will in near time be able to process Ni-alloys. The system at AM Center has the capacity of processing one material at a time, but there are larger systems that can processes multiple materials simultaneously.

How it works

Hirtisation is a fully automated three step process. In the first step, Hirtisation is capable of removing both internal and external support structures as well as removing the powder cake.  

The second step improves the surface roughness to a level suitable for many industrial applications. The third and final step is used for polishing and smoothing of the surface even further. 

All this can be achieved without any mechanical processing and retention of edge sharpness, which is important in all cases for industrial applications.

Are you interested to learn more about the hirtisation process or evaluate how it works for your additively produced parts? Or in general, how you can improve the surface quality of metal components? Please contact us for more information!