We acknowledge the importance of support structures during additive manufacturing, but the inherent challenges of support structure removal have also studied to exhibit anisotropic properties in hardness [1] and orientation-dependent support removal [2]. The case is worsened where thin-walled parts are concerned, which involve additional freedom of motion [3]. While reconfiguring the build quality and procedure could aid machinability, our team devised the alternative of applying resin to increase the stiffness of the structures that eases material removal [4].

Publications

[1] Q. Cao, et al., The effect of support structures on maraging steel MS1 parts fabricated by selective laser melting at different building angles, Rapid Prototyping Journal, 26 (2020) 1465–1476.

[2] Q. Cao, et al., Removability of 316L stainless steel cone and block support structures fabricated by Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Materials & Design, 191 (2020) 108691.

[3] Q. Cao, et al., Support removal on thin-walled parts produced by laser powder bed fusion, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, 10 (2023) 762–775.

[4] Q. Cao, et al., A novel method to improve the removability of cone support structures in selective laser melting of 316L stainless steel, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 854 (2021) 157133.

Acknowledgements

This research is proudly supported by the A*STAR Industry Alignment Fund (A19E1a0097).