Industrial laser micro sintering

Abstract

As mechanical engineering industry encounters a growing demand of µm-sized or µm-structured components for an increasing range of applications, miniaturization is presently ranking among the most important goals in product and tool development. Compared to still higher resolving techniques, selective laser sintering (SLS) still bears the advantages of relatively low production cost and short processing times even for series productions of micro parts. Furthermore, next to prismatic or tapered microstructures, undercuts and hollows can be realized. Until recently commercial SLS units were unable to generate micro parts smaller than 100 µm. A novel modification of SLS together with a new setup, developed by Laser Institut Mittelsachsen e.V, extends the resolution to less than 30 µm with a minimal roughness of 1.5µm. The technique has been upgraded and successfully applied to produce micro tools or micro-components for tools from powders of refractory as well as lower melting metals in steps of 1µm thick sintered layers. Based on this process and device, 3D-Micromac AG (Chemnitz, Germany) launches into the market a commercial system, which, on an industrial scale, performs selective laser sintering of solid and structured metal and in future also ceramic parts.