Vapor smoothing glossary: the words you will see here

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A quick reference. Reply below if a term is missing.

The process

  • Vapor smoothing. A surface finishing process for thermoplastic parts. In AMT’s words, the rough surface of a printed part “is exposed to solvent vapors under controlled conditions. The vapor condenses on the part’s surface, eliminating peaks and troughs.” The result is a smooth, sealed surface.
  • The four stages. AMT’s product pages describe a cycle as conditioning (parts reach processing conditions), processing (vaporized consumable is injected into the chamber), curing (the surface resolidifies) and drying (no consumable traces remain in the chamber).
  • Sealing. Smoothing closes the open, porous surface of a powder bed part. AMT’s pages and customers describe the result as easier to clean and more resistant to water.
  • Recipe. The set of process settings for a material and part. Your AMT application engineer sets recipes for your parts.
  • Chamber. The space the parts sit in during a cycle. Its size decides how many parts fit in one run.
  • Rack / hanging. How parts are held in the chamber so the vapor reaches every surface you care about.
  • Closed loop. AMT describes the SF50 and SF100 as fully closed-loop systems, with a consumable recovery process.

Measuring results

  • Surface roughness (Ra). A common measure of surface texture: the average deviation of the surface from its mean line, usually in micrometers (µm). Lower is smoother.
  • Dimensional change. How much a part’s size changes through smoothing. Check it on the features that matter for your fit.
  • Benchmark. AMT’s program for testing your parts before you buy.

Printing technologies

  • PBF (powder bed fusion). Printing by fusing layers of polymer powder. SLS, MJF, SAF and HSS are all PBF.
  • SLS. Selective laser sintering: a laser fuses the powder.
  • MJF. HP Multi Jet Fusion: a fusing agent and infrared energy fuse the powder.
  • SAF. Selective Absorption Fusion, a Stratasys powder bed process.
  • HSS. High Speed Sintering, a powder bed process used by voxeljet.
  • FDM / FFF. Material extrusion: a heated nozzle lays down filament.
  • Depowdering. Removing unfused powder from printed parts. It comes before smoothing.

Materials

  • PA12, PA11. Polyamide (nylon) 12 and 11, the most common powder bed materials.
  • TPU, TPE. Thermoplastic polyurethane and thermoplastic elastomer: flexible materials.
  • PP. Polypropylene, smoothed with its own consumable.

AMT products

  • PostPro SFX, SF2X. The desktop systems. The SF2X has double the chamber capacity of the SFX.
  • PostPro SF50, SF100. The production systems: the same machine with two chamber sizes.
  • DMS (Digital Manufacturing System). Automated loading and unloading for PostPro SF100 systems.
  • PostPro Pure (FA5802), FA326, FA9202. AMT’s vapor smoothing consumables. FA9202 is for polypropylene. See PostPro Pure, FA326 or FA9202: which consumable for which material?.
  • HMI. Human-machine interface: the machine’s touchscreen.
  • RFID. Radio-frequency identification. On the SF50 and SF100 it controls user access and recognizes the consumable.
  • MES / ERP. Manufacturing execution and enterprise resource planning systems. The SF50 and SF100 connect to them.

Sources

  1. Vapor smoothing: SF and X-series family page and SFX, SF2X, SF50, SF100 product pages. AMT, page read Oct 6, 2026
  2. PostPro Digital Manufacturing System (DMS). AMT, page read Oct 6, 2026
  3. Vapor smoothing consumables: PostPro Pure (FA5802), FA326 and FA9202. AMT, page read Oct 6, 2026
  4. AMT PostPro brochure: automated post-processing systems for additive manufacturing, V4.0 (June 2026). AMT, Jun 2026
  5. Customer spotlights on AMT industry pages (1zu1 Prototypen, automotive; ZiggZagg, consumer). AMT, page read Oct 6, 2026