Design for Rapid Manufacturing functional SLS parts

Walter Kruf M. Sc., Bart van de Vorst B. Sc., Hessel Maalderink B. Sc.,Nico Kamperman M. Sc.
TNO Science and Industry, BU Design and Manufacturing, PO Box 6235, 5600 HE, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, nico.kamperman@tno.nl

Mass customisation requires flexible and fully automated production technologies. Layered Manufacturing Technologies (LMT), in the application of Rapid Manufacturing (RM), demonstrates high potential in a production chain where product design is generated automatically based on physical and/or personal requirements. The business unit Design and Manufacturing of TNO Science and Industry, performs research on Rapid Manufacturing (RM) technologies like multi material inkjet printing, micro SLA and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) in order to elevate these processes to a level where they can be used as true Rapid Manufacturing. This paper presents the ongoing studies done on the SLS process, focussing on materials properties and reproducibility, RM texturing software, coatings for SLS parts and design rules for SLS. This paper concludes with a simple yet illustrating example of the application of Rapid manufacturing using intelligent design approach.

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Submitted by sceyw3 on Tue, 27/06/2006 - 2:20pm.
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A question

Submitted by sceyw3 on Mon, 03/07/2006 - 5:00pm.

Welcome to IPROMS 2006. The paper presents the authors's various studies in the SLS process. Could you please feature one or two studies to give a detailed explanation? Thanks.

Questions

Submitted by jusoh on Fri, 07/07/2006 - 9:55am.

LS involves a complex heat transfer process which cause the powder deteriorated. The powder properties and process parameters employed significantly influence the fabricated parts. My questions:
i-How the melt viscosity influence the mechanical performance and part surface quality?
ii- Does the powder size changes due to the same powder repeatedly employed in the LS process, consequently influence the part dimensional accuracy?
iii-Why feel and touch did you choose to justify the quality of LS part surface? Is there any metrology methods recommended?
iv-May I know the nanomaterial did you use? Instead of using nanomaterial such as a Polyamide/Yttrium Stabilized Zirconia Nanocomposite.
v-How to overcome the high shrinkage and distortion of GF3200 materials, even the recommended process parameters from LS machine manufacturer is employed?

Regards

Jusoh

One study mentioned in the

Submitted by Nico Kamperman on Wed, 12/07/2006 - 12:05pm.

One study mentioned in the article was related to the reproducibility of SLS as a production process. The influence of various parameters have been investigated, mainly focussed on mechanical propperties. Main conclusion is that variations in the powderbedtemperature has significant influence on the mechanical properties, but it was demonstrated that virtually all parameters do have a certain influence, what is consistant with previous published data. Some data has been published on the SFF 2005 symposium in cooperation with Loughborough University, focussing on the influence of powder history and the differences between EOS and 3DS machines. Influence of e.g wall thichnesses and build orientation has been presented on the EOS user meeting in 2005.

answer to Josoh

Submitted by Nico Kamperman on Wed, 12/07/2006 - 12:29pm.

i: sintering mechanism is thought to be based on viscous flow or viscoelastic flow, so low viscosity is important for flow and densification.
ii: Powdersize does not change significantly, though particle coalecence might happen
iii: Tangibility is important for e.g. sports and medical applications, verification is mainly subjective: own opignion or user testing
iv: Own material
v: We do not have much experience, though recommended parameters normally have to be addapted to the single machine. Slow cooling is significant for filled materials.

Hi NicoThanks for your

Submitted by sceyw3 on Thu, 13/07/2006 - 11:43am.

Hi Nico

Thanks for your reply.

Btw, could you please upload your video presentation?

Best Wishes,

Yan

Design for Rapid Manufacturing functional SLS parts

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