Lattices and thin-walled parts show off vapor smoothing well: lots of surface, often in flexible materials, and hard to finish any other way. AMT’s vapor smoothing page calls out complex geometries with intricate features as the parts that are difficult to process by hand, and shows a smoothed lattice saddle in MJF TPU.
AMT does not publish a single minimum wall thickness or strut size for every material and machine, so this topic collects what works in practice.
What to check on your design
- Can it be depowdered? Dense lattices hold powder. If you cannot clean it, you cannot smooth it well. See Depowder thoroughly before smoothing, and why it matters.
- How will it be held? A thin or soft part needs contact points that do not distort it. See Share your best racking setup for TPU lattices.
- What must it do afterwards? Flex, seal, take a load, look good? Tell AMT, so the recipe and the test match the job.
Evidence that lattice surfaces respond
For BASF Ultrasint TPU01 on HP MJF, an AMT whitepaper measured surface roughness falling from 13.42 µm to 1.18 µm after PostPro vapor smoothing (published Nov 2022).
Over to you: what is the thinnest wall or strut you have smoothed with good results? Share the material, the printer and a photo if you can.
Sources
- Vapor smoothing: SF and X-series family page and SFX, SF2X, SF50, SF100 product pages. AMT, page read Oct 6, 2026
- Ultrasint TPU01 enhancement with PostPro vapor smoothing (whitepaper). AMT, Nov 7, 2022