ASSESSING THE INTERACTION OF A LASER BEAM AND POLYMERIC POWDERS IN POLYMER LASER SINTERING
Keywords:
polymer laser sintering, analytical model, degree of fusion, process-parameters, material propertiesAbstract
Polymer laser sintering (PLS) has received considerable attention for the last four decades. However, some of its aspects are not well understood to date. This study aims to shed light on the complex interaction between a laser beam and polymeric powder particles during sintering, which is a critical stage in PLS. In this work, an analytical model linking the degree of fusion of particles of powder with their material properties together with process-parameters was developed using dimensional analysis and the Buckingham Π theorem. It was proved using experimental data that the developed analytical model can be used to optimise different process-parameters by establishing a set of parameters providing the highest value of a proposed parameter to represent the degree of fusion of particles (Ω). This value for polypropylene powder (Ultrasint PP nat 01 from BASF) was approximated as 0.25, based on suitable process-parameters. Numerical modelling was conducted using Flow 3D software to investigate the characteristics of depth and width of a melt pool because these aspects are essential indicators of the stability of PLS and the quality of the final parts printed using polymer laser sintering. The obtained simulation results showed that melt pool width and depth increased with increasing laser power and decreased with increasing scanning speed.References
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