As additive manufacturing (AM) scales toward serial production, automation of the full workflow—particularly post-processing—has become essential to achieving industrial productivity, cost efficiency, and repeatable quality. This workshop focuses on automated depowdering, support removal, heat treatment handling, surface finishing, inspection, and integrated robotic material handling systems.

The sub-workshop explores end-to-end automation strategies across metal and polymer AM platforms, including robotic powder recovery, automated unpacking stations, CNC hybrid finishing, surface treatment cells, and AI-enabled inspection systems. Emphasis will be placed on reducing manual intervention, improving worker safety, minimizing variability, and increasing throughput.

Key topics include robotic integration, machine-to-machine communication, closed-loop production cells, inline metrology, and digital production tracking. Presentations will address current bottlenecks in post-processing—often representing the majority of total production time and cost—and strategies to transform AM into a fully automated, lights-out manufacturing process.

Academic speakers will present advances in robotic manipulation, intelligent finishing systems, and automated quality control, while industry leaders will share case studies of fully integrated AM production lines.

The workshop aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how automation and robotics can unlock the productivity gains required for high-volume additive manufacturing.

Extended Key Takeaways & Outputs

• Comparative overview of automated post-processing technologies for metal and polymer AM

• Identification of bottlenecks in depowdering, finishing, and quality inspection

• Strategies for integrating robotics into end-to-end AM production cells

• R&D priorities for autonomous and lights-out AM factories

• Roadmap for industrial-scale automation of additive manufacturing workflows