Powder-bed-based 3D printing of polymer components may employ auxiliary agents to enable precise directing of sintering heat flows induced by diffuse thermal sources. These utilized auxiliary agents entail adherent printing powder residuals covering the components’ surfaces.
Within an envisaged automated post processing workflow of these printed components aspects correlated to these adherent powder residuals are addressed as well. Resource efficient development of such a workflow suggests purposive numerical simulations to assist the design of process-related devices.  For close-to-reality simulations, thorough knowledge of material behavior is prerequisite.
Therefore, besides the description of the adherent powder residuals’ elastic material behavior, a failure surface needs to be determined, as the failure behavior of the said powder residuals appears highly relevant within the carried-out finite-element simulations. An experimental approach, based on geotechnical direct shear testing, has been developed to enable controlled load subjection to undisturbed cohesive powder residuals for that purpose.
Simulation campaigns depicting component transportation tasks by means of mechanical gripping systems are suitable to secure safe transportation of components with and without powder residuals. The effects of variously shaped grippers were investigated regarding required gripping forces and the interactive behavior in the contact area.
Based on the proposed material characterization, future research will focus grit blasting removal of adherent powder residuals from the additively manufactured components including the impact effects of rapid particles onto the plain surface of the individual components. Within this context, anisotropic material properties of the components are considered.