Advances in modeling the effects of selected parameters on the SLS process

TLDR

Selective laser sintering (SLS) fuses powder layers to create rapid prototypes and is poised to become an indispensable industrial tool, yet continuous process improvement remains necessary. The study aims to deepen understanding of how process parameters affect SLS performance to drive process advances. The authors analyze an energy‑delivery, heat‑transfer, and sintering model, and conduct physical experiments and numerical simulations on Bisphenol‑A polycarbonate to assess the impact of laser power, beam velocity, hatch spacing, spot size, and scan line length. They find that secondary parameters—delay period and number of effective exposures—significantly influence the SLS process response.

Abstract

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a leading process for developing rapid prototype objects by selectively fusing layers of powder according to numerically defined cross‐sectional geometry. The process has the potential to become an indispensable industrial tool. However, continuous process improvement is necessary. Improved understanding of the parameter effects on the process response is expected to lead to process advances. In this work the analytical problem describing the energy delivery, heat transfer and sintering process along with other pertinent phenomena is studied. Physical experiments and implementation of a numerical simulation are conducted using Bisphenol‐A polycarbonate. The effects of selected parameters on the SLS process response are examined. The primary parameters of interest are the laser power, laser beam velocity, hatch spacing, laser beam spot size and scan line length. This work shows that the secondary process parameters, delay period and number of effective exposures have a significant influence on the process response.