Machining challenges in additive manufacturing

Who has not heard of the fantastic benefits that additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have brought to real world applications? We are now seeing parts designed that are lighter, more efficient and that are fancy. Several new technologies in AM have popped up and old ones are getting highly efficient and automated to process materials and generate little waste. There are however, still a few challenges.

Looking to the other side of this technology, which is often referred to as 'the dark side of AM' are the challenges with post-processing these parts. Take finish machining for example. The real benefits such as light weight and complex geometries become real challenges while machining some features that has to meet tight tolerances. These parts need special work-holding setups and can produce vibrations due to reduced stiffness (due to light weight) that can lead to bad surface quality. The next big challenge is referencing these parts using the datum features, which are still limited to the quality of the surface in as built state.

To understand how these challenges could be tackled, here is a case study.