The Additive Manufacturing routings available in aPriori include the following:

For all routings, Machining is included if the user specifies tolerances that are not achievable by the primary process.

In addition, DMLS routings require, by default, all the following:

You can also manually include processes from Heat treatment, Surface Treatment, and Other Secondary Processes. And you can manually assign machining operations to individual GCDs.

Material Jetting includes the following processes:

The Powder Bed Fusion routings are shown below:

Selective Laser Sintering includes the following processes:

Direct Metal Laser Sintering includes the following processes:

With metal sintering, parts are constructed on a base plate, a steel build platform positioned on the machine bed. The cost model assumes that the base plate is machined between runs.

By default, in order to model removal of the base plate from the base support structure, aPriori assigns to the Build Direction GCD the Base Plate Removal operation of the Wire EDM process (from the Machining process group). The Base Plate Removal operation is performed on the portion of the base plate that was occupied by the array of nested parts (that is, the smallest build-plate-aligned rectangle that encloses all the parts).

You can override the default, and instead model base plate removal with Manual Tool Base Removal or Power Tool Base Removal, by manually including one of these processes (under the Base Plate Removal node in the Additive Manufacturing process group). Manual Tool Base Removal and Power Tool Base Removal each have an operation (Base Removal Manual or Base Removal Power) that is performed on each Support Structure GCD.

In addition, in order to model base plate finishing subsequent to base plate removal, aPriori assigns Base Plate Facing (a child of 3-Axis Mill or 5-Axis Mill in the Machining process group) to the Build Direction GCD. Facing is performed on the entire surface area of the base plate (the product of machine Bed Length and Bed Width). Note that if wire EDM and facing are performed, facing appears first in the Manufacutring Process pane even though this doesn’t match the actual operation order.

DMLS routings also include Stress Relief from the Heat Treatment process group, as well as Ultrasonic Cleaning from the Other Secondary Processes process group.

Stereolithography includes the following processes: