Rivelin’s NetShape Robotics Automate Support Removal in AM Postprocessing

Rivelin Robotics offers NetShape Robots for metal additive manufacturing (AM) postprocessing and finishing solutions for a variety of production applications, including automating support removal in the AM process chain to improve productivity and reliable turnaround times for every part manufactured.

NetShape Robots provide an automated solution for metal support removal and targeted finishing to meet the standards of mission-critical industries. The robots are driven by the company’s NetShape control software, in which both machine learning and traditional deterministic control theory are used to optimize the quality and repeatability of support removal and finishing. The result is an automated support removal solution that reduces defects and operational costs, and eliminates human risk and variability.

“Embedding quality, reliability and repeatability into the postprocessing of metal parts across numerous industrial sectors is where NetShape is having its biggest impact,” says Robert Bush, Rivelin CEO.

Rivelin NetShape is focused on metal near-net-shape manufacturing. Through the use of machine learning, advanced sensors and proprietary algorithms, Rivelin’s software encapsulates human craftsmanship and intuition with the repeatability and traceability of industrial robotics. NetShape can transform skilled manual tasks into digital procedures that can be executed repeatedly, with minimal oversight, to produce high-quality, finished metal parts.

The company says its robots have already made significant strides in the casting and metal AM sector, considerably boosting productivity and efficiency, reducing costs and eliminating high-risk working conditions.

Rivelin believes that automated platforms like NetShape will be instrumental in unlocking sustainable “local-for-local” production around the world. That involves creating localized digital production ecosystems powered by automation technology where products are manufactured near the locations where they will be consumed.

Advanced manufacturing technologies enable this shift for industries such as aerospace, defense, energy and medical, where part complexity, small batch sizes and skills requirements initially drove manufacturing overseas. By focusing on local production, companies can increase efficiency, responsiveness and resilience while cutting costs, reducing emissions and supporting regional economies.

The Rivelin Netshape solutions also offer a cleaner, more cost-effective, streamlined and automated approach for powder removal, support removal and finishing.

“Rivelin’s Netshape Robots offer a much cleaner approach for metal postprocessing and close the gap that exists in AM’s digital process chain by removing manual finishing steps,” Bush says. “Automation is the key, with 8-axis (6+2) robots driven by the advanced and intelligent Netshape software, which not only automates the support removal and finishing steps but also provides process data, reliability, consistency and traceability.”

The company has also been collaborating with Solukon on a new automated powder removal concept. The partners have identified areas where the two companies can collaborate and align Solukon’s SFM-AT800-S large automated powder removal solution with Rivelin’s precise and reliable robotic solutions for support removal and finishing, featuring Rivelin Netshape software and Yaskawa EU robots.

“At Rivelin, we passionately believe that digital innovation and progress are not a threat to manual jobs in manufacturing. Rather they offer a new paradigm focused on humans shaping ideas and technology crafting them,” Bush adds. “In this way we can promote safety, efficiency and sustainability.”

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• Learn about Rivelin Robotics’ netshape robots for metal am postprocessing. NetShape Robots are designed to provide an automated solution for metal support removal and targeted finishing to meet the standards of mission-critical industries.
   
• Read this article about Rivelin’s robot craftsman using force sensing and vision to help realize automated am postprocessing.