Selective laser sintering

Selective laser sintering for manufacturing highly stress-resistant prototypes

In selective laser sintering, spatial structures are created by the melting-on, layer by layer, of plastic powder with the aid of a laser. As required, the plastic powder is high-strength and elastic, or filled with metal or glass fibres. With this method, and before the exposure to light and the melting process take place, a coating system applies thermoplastic powder (layer thickness approx. 0.1 to 0.2 mm) to the lowerable platform for each machine. The freshly-applied surface of the powder is then heated to just under the melting point of the material. A laser now passes over the component contours which are to be hardened in this layer in order to melt the material in a localised way. After this light exposure process is completed, the platform is lowered again and the process starts again using the geometry data of the next layer until the complete component has been made.
When using selective laser sintering to manufacture prototypes, you can expect a delivery time of 4 to 10 working days.

Selective laser sintering offers these advantages:

It is a relatively low-cost process.
Selective laser sintering is especially suitable for manufacturing very complicated parts – no need for post-processing work.
The finished prototypes stand out thanks to their high strength and stability.

Note the following characteristics:

Selective laser sintering requires a lot of mechanical effort and production time which depends on the volume.
Because of the nature of the process, the surface of the prototype is very rough. If you intend to use the article as a presentation sample, you will require a surface finish (including lacquering) achieved with, for example, a primer, in order to deal with the unevenness of the surface.