streamline3d

Raw Grey Finish- Multi jet fusion 3D Printed Parts

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:05:10 GMT

Figuring out the best finish, FOR YOU!

The RAW GREY finish for multi-jet Fusion 3D printed parts, is how the parts come out of the printer with no post processing. When the parts come out of the printer they are covered in a loose white powder similar to baking powder. Most of the powder is wiped off in the processing station; to make the parts completely clean we blast the model surfaces with the very fine spherical glass bead which knocks off all the infused powder. What we are left with is a raw gray finish.
A lot of people do not realize that MJF parts are actually black inside, there's about a 200 to 300 Micron layer crust of grey on the surface because the parts print in a white powder and then the fusing agent that melts the plastic together is black but that transition zone is actually grey. If you were to cut the model with a knife or snap it in half you would see that the inside of the model is actually a kind of a graphite black color.

There are a few benefits to the raw finish, the main benefit is that it's just cheap all of our other finishes have some sort of extra cost whereas the raw gray finish adds no cost the parts generally still look pretty darn good with the raw gray finish but it looks kind of unique it doesn't look like a normal part you would buy at a store; and the surfaces also will have that unique powder based sugar cube finish that SLS and MJF parts have
The main downsides to the raw finish would be that the finish just kind of looks different sometimes the finish will have lighter spots and darker spots from blasting. The blasting will reveal some of that dark inner core of the part. Sometimes the printing chamber will be hotter or colder and that could change the amount of powder stuck to the surface and change the color; so there's just some variation batch to batch.
The main applications that we see for the raw finish are prototypes and parts that just don't matter aesthetically. A lot of times people order prototypes and are just checking if they fit and how they will mate up to other parts. For end-use applications where you have a part inside of a say an electrical enclosure inside of an engine compartment or maybe anywhere that's hidden and not going to be shown in the public.

Shot Peen Finish- Multi Jet Fusion 3D Printed Parts

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Want scratch resistance?

You may ask yourself what is shot peening? It's a process where plastic beads are shot at a part to create a scratch resistant surface. When shot peening a part the plastic beads carry enough kinetic energy to cause plastic deformation don't be alarmed this doesn't hurt the part. What this does is create an area of stress on the surface of the part the indentations of the plastic beads create toughen the surface resulting in scratch resistance.

The perfect application for Shot peening is where a part my experience some light abrasion but you still want the part to look nice . Overall shot peening doesn't really offer any enhancements to the parts material properties but it does offer scratch resistance and a better aesthetic finish. It works best with parts that are dyed black. Realistically the only downside to shot peening is that it can get stuck inside of small text engravings.

Dyed Black Finish- Multi Jet Fusion 3D printed Parts

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Optimizing your parts aesthetic!

The Dyed Black finish is one of the most desirable finishes in 3D printing. Here at Streamline- 3D we perfected it! In order to achieve a perfect finish we custom built a dye tank specific for the application, to give us the best finish. Not only that we hired a material scientist to formulate the dye that gives us a consistent color we developed this system to stand out as other service bureaus have been known to give parts that don't really meet color standards.

Each component of the dying cycle is crucial from the amount of water that goes into the dying tank to the amount of dye being mixed into the water, every step is calculated in order to achieve the perfect finish every time. Once the parts are done dying they get cleaned and rinsed, from there we take them on to our drying cabinet. One of the many benefits is that the price increase from raw grey to black really isn't that big of a difference it's roughly five percent depending on your parts surface area.
One of the bigger benefits of getting your parts dyed black is that it can really mask minor imperfections, it being scratches or the effect of over blasting getting the parts dyed will cover it. Overall, the Dyed Black finish is just aesthetically pleasing around 70 percent of our customers purchase this finish. There aren't really any negatives we have heard from some other service bureaus that they experience some

difficulty obtaining uniformity of color throughout the part. Which we figured out that it's based on the density of the part in order to compensate for this we developed the dye system to give us the best consistent color.