Metal additive manufacturing leaves a difficult finishing step after printing: removing the supports.
Fraunhofer IAPT says delicate or internal structures make that step harder.
Manual work ties up staff, can produce inconsistent quality and exposes workers to risks such as fine metal powder release.
IAPT has announced an automated ultrasonic method for removing supports from additively manufactured metal components.
The vibration path
The component is coupled to an ultrasonic system, which transmits high-frequency mechanical vibration through it, particularly into its supports.
The institute combines excitation chosen for the component with specially adapted support designs.
According to IAPT, the combination produces resonance in the supports and local stress peaks at their attachment points.
That sequence makes the attachment point the useful place to look when asking how the supports separate.
IAPT reports residue-free detachment within a few minutes without manual intervention under the new method.
What the announcement establishes
The press release also claims gains in workplace safety, cost efficiency, time, stability, reproducibility and quality.
Those qualitative claims should not be converted into a numerical saving or a measured performance ratio.
IAPT says the method is used in dental technology and could be adapted across industries and 3D printing processes that employ supports.
The mechanism it describes still rests on component-specific excitation and adapted support structures.
The Sonodent project received funding in May 2026, a patent application has been filed, and IAPT plans a first Formnext presentation in November 2026.
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