An efficient scanning algorithm for improving accuracy based on minimising part warping in selected laser sintering process

In the selective laser sintering (SLS) method, layers of powder are scanned by a laser beam and sintered. The thermal gradients created by laser heating and the subsequent cooling of the sintered sections results in thermal stresses and part warping in the final part. Thermal gradients are dependent on the scanning algorithm, in particular, the scan vector length. In this work, an efficient scanning algorithm for the SLS process is presented with the aim to minimise the part warping in the final part due to thermally induced residual stresses, while maintaining the production time at a minimum. The proposed algorithm is implemented in a finite element simulation and scanning parameters including the number of offsets and scanning length are optimised at constant laser parameters and chamber conditions. The FE model is verified by testing a few samples on SLS machine and comparing the parts made by the proposed algorithm with those made using conventional scan algorithm is the same as parallel-line scan algorithm. It is shown that part warping in the parts made by the proposed algorithm is reduced by up to 35% while the production time, part accuracy and surface properties are improved.     

New model for shrinkage compensation in selective laser sintering

This paper presents a new model for shrinkage and a new approach for shrinkage compensation to enhance the accuracy of parts produced by selective laser sintering (SLS)–a solid freeform fabrication process. The present prevailing approach as proposed by machine manufacturers is simple but not accurate. A new shrinkage model which accounts for part geometry as well as beam offset is proposed in this work. A new compensation scheme which accounts for nonlinear shrinkage is proposed, implemented and validated. The proposed compensation scheme compensates for shrinkage at every layer and at every hatch length, unlike a uniform compensation scheme applied to entire part. A new algorithm which accounts for this is developed and implemented. Experiments carried out with the new shrinkage model as well as with the new compensation scheme have shown significant improvement in the accuracy of the parts produced which establishes the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

Development of functionally-graded reservoir of PCL/PG by selective laser sintering for drug delivery devices

Drug delivery devices are systems employed to conduct a drug to a specific site of the body, where it should be released and absorbed. Reservoir-type systems are devices in which the drug is contained within a nucleus isolated from the outside environment by a thin polymeric layer, which regulates a diffusion process driven by a functional concentration gradient. In this study two reservoir-type drug delivery devices based on polycaprolactone (PCL) were developed for the release of progesterone (PG) using the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technique, in order to investigate the influence of the concentration gradient promoted during manufacturing on the drug delivery profile. Two types of controlled-drug-release devices were fabricated; the first containing only the polycaprolactone polymer in the reservoir wall (system R) and the second containing PLC and 15% of progesterone in the wall (system R*). The cores of both reservoirs were filled with 40 mg of progesterone. A study on the degradation was conducted to assess the release process of the two systems. The drug delivery results showed that for both reservoirs the amount of drug released was linear over time, featuring zero-order release kinetics. The higher mass loss with the incorporation of the drug into the wall of the reservoir was associated with faster release of the drug to the medium. The feasibility of building three-dimensional parts using the SLS technique allowed the construction of reservoir-type devices based on a functional gradient for the controlled-release of the drug.     

A review on powder-based additive manufacturing for tissue engineering: selective laser sintering and inkjet 3D printing

Since most starting materials for tissue engineering are in powder form, using powder-based additive manufacturing methods is attractive and practical. The principal point of employing additive manufacturing (AM) systems is to fabricate parts with arbitrary geometrical complexity with relatively minimal tooling cost and time. Selective laser sintering (SLS) and inkjet 3D printing (3DP) are two powerful and versatile AM techniques which are applicable to powder-based material systems. Hence, the latest state of knowledge available on the use of AM powder-based techniques in tissue engineering and their effect on mechanical and biological properties of fabricated tissues and scaffolds must be updated. Determining the effective setup of parameters, developing improved biocompatible/bioactive materials, and improving the mechanical/biological properties of laser sintered and 3D printed tissues are the three main concerns which have been investigated in this article.     

Progress in selective laser sintering using metallic powders: a review

Laser sintering is a newly well established additive manufacturing technique, which has higher capabilities to produce complex shapes models/parts in a short time period. In this technique, a solid model is directly produced according to computer aided design model, by fusing two adjacent layers together, with the interaction of laser light. These parts are widely used in industries like aerospace and automobile and for medical applications as well. This paper reviews the selective laser sintering process and its research progress with the use of metallic powders. The main focus of whole available research progress is to produce complex shape solid model/parts using different metallic materials having the desired mechanical as well as dimensional properties.     

A review on powder-based additive manufacturing for tissue engineering: selective laser sintering and inkjet 3D printing

Abstract

Since most starting materials for tissue engineering are in powder form, using powder-based additive manufacturing methods is attractive and practical. The principal point of employing additive manufacturing (AM) systems is to fabricate parts with arbitrary geometrical complexity with relatively minimal tooling cost and time. Selective laser sintering (SLS) and inkjet 3D printing (3DP) are two powerful and versatile AM techniques which are applicable to powder-based material systems. Hence, the latest state of knowledge available on the use of AM powder-based techniques in tissue engineering and their effect on mechanical and biological properties of fabricated tissues and scaffolds must be updated. Determining the effective setup of parameters, developing improved biocompatible/bioactive materials, and improving the mechanical/biological properties of laser sintered and 3D printed tissues are the three main concerns which have been investigated in this article.     

高分子粉末烧结件的增强后处理的研究

以高分子粉末为在底材料的烧结件机械性能较差,质脆,其可作为原型测试件,但作为功能测试件则较难达到使用要求。本文在具体研究原型件性能差别的基础上,对其进行树脂增强后处理,以扫描电镜（SEM）为手段,对材料断裂面的形态结构进行了研究,并对体系的形态结构与拉伸性能、冲击之间的关系进行了探讨,优化了后处理条件,得到机械性能为原型烧结件3－4倍的增强烧结件。     

尼龙12覆膜铝粉激光烧结成形件的性能研究

常用的机械混合法很难将尼龙12和金属粉末材料混合均匀,容易出现偏聚,因而会造成选择性激光烧结(SLS)成形件中存在局部强度弱点、翘曲等缺陷.为此,提出了通过溶液沉淀法制备SLS成形用尼龙12覆膜铝粉,利用扫描电镜观察了尼龙12覆膜铝粉及烧结件断口的微观形貌,研究了铝粉含量及粒径对SLS成形件性能的影响.结果表明:尼龙12均匀地包覆在铝粉表面,无裸露铝粉颗粒存在,表明成功制备得到了尼龙12覆膜铝粉材料;当铝粉含量从0增大到50%时,烧结件的热变形温度、拉伸强度、弯曲强度、弯曲模量及硬度比纯尼龙烧结件分别提高了87℃、10.4%、62.1%、122.3%及70.4%;烧结件的拉伸强度、断裂伸长率及冲击强度均随着铝粉平均粒径的减小而增大.     

3D printing by selective laser sintering of polypropylene feed channel spacers for spiral wound membrane modules for the water industry

Feed spacers are net-like structures present in spiral wound membrane modules (SWM) used for treatment of water and wastewater. Feed spacers require appropriate stiffness to support the membrane sheets without damaging and puncturing the membrane surfaces. They also need to be flexible enough to be rolled up around the central permeate tube forming the SWM. Polypropylene (PP) is the commercially used material for feed spacers due to its flexibility and excellent chemical resistance properties. In this paper, selective laser sintering (SLS) is used to investigate the printability of net-typed structures using PP materials to represent feed spacers. SLS processing parameters such as layer thickness, part bed temperature, energy density and scan pattern were studied and net-typed PP spacers were successfully fabricated. However, an analysis on tensile test and dimensional accuracy shows that Young’s modulus of the PP material tends to be correlated to the accuracy of the dimensions of the net-typed spacer prototypes.     

Optimum part deposition orientation for multiple objectives in SL and SLS prototyping

In the present work an attempt has been made to achieve minimum average part surface roughness (best overall surface quality), minimum build time and support structure for stereolithography (SL) and selective laser sintering (SLS) processed parts by determining optimum part deposition orientation. A conventional optimisation algorithm based on a trust region method (available with MATLAB-7 optimisation tool box) has been used to solve the multi-objective optimisation problem. It is observed that the problem is highly multi-modal in nature and a suitable initial guess, which is used as an input to execute the optimisation module, is important to achieve a global optimum. A simple methodology has been proposed to find out the initial guess so that global minimum is obtained. Finally the surface roughness simulation is carried out with optimum part deposition orientation to have an idea of surface roughness variation over the entire part's surface before depositing the part. Case studies are presented to demonstrate the capabilities of the developed system. The major achievements of this work are consideration of multiple objectives for the two rapid prototyping processes, successful use of conventional optimisation algorithm available with MATLAB to handle multiple objectives and development of graphical user interface-based system.     

提高蓝宝石高温强度和透过率的研究

在蓝宝石(α-Al2O3)衬底上利用射频磁控反应溅射法制备出SiO2/Si3N4双层增透膜系,并对镀膜后的蓝宝石进行了高温强度测试及其透过率的研究.研究表明:镀膜后蓝宝石的高温强度和透过率均有明显提高;800℃时,镀膜蓝宝石的高温强度比未镀膜提高了41.0%;在3～5μm波段范围内,室温下镀膜后透过率比镀膜前提高8.0%;SiO2/Si3N4膜系具有较高的热稳定性,且与蓝宝石衬底附着良好.     

金属粉末激光快速成形的工艺及材料成形性

对比了3类金属粉末激光快速成形工艺:选区激光烧结;选区激光重熔,或称选区激光熔覆;以及直接激光沉积,或称激光净成形.提出了其分类依据是金属粉末与激光的作用机制,以及由此导致的金属粉末激光成形机理.综述了上述3类激光快速成形工艺的成形原理、成形材料及工艺优劣,分析了"球化"效应、翘曲变形、以及裂纹等对金属粉末激光成形性的影响规律及相应解决措施.     

Investigation and development of large-scale equipment and high performance materials for powder bed laser fusion additive manufacturing

The current available selective laser sintering (SLS) and selective laser melting (SLM) systems have relatively small effective building volumes, which do not offer capability to integrally manufacture a large dimension component. Therefore, our research team in Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, has broken through some key techniques such as the large powder bed preheating system and multi-laser scanning technique, and then successfully developed a series of large-scale SLS systems with effective building volumes up to 1400×1400×500 mm³, and an SLM system with an effective building volume of 500×250×400 mm³. These large-scale SLS/SLM systems will not only offer new capability to make large complex prototypes and products, but also provide higher volume production capability to make numerous small parts rapidly and cost-effectively. In addition, several high performance materials have been developed for the large-scale SLS/SLM systems.     

A review on selective laser sintering/melting (SLS/SLM) of aluminium alloy powders: Processing,microstructure, and properties

Manufacturing businesses aiming to deliver their new customised products more quickly and gain more consumer markets for their products will increasingly employ selective laser sintering/melting (SLS/SLM) for fabricating high quality, low cost, repeatable, and reliable aluminium alloy powdered parts for automotive, aerospace, and aircraft applications. However, aluminium powder is known to be uniquely bedevilled with the tenacious surface oxide film which is difficult to avoid during SLS/SLM processing. The tenacity of the surface oxide film inhibits metallurgical bonding across the layers during SLS/SLM processing and this consequently leads to initiation of spheroidisation by Marangoni convection. Due to the paucity of publications on SLS/SLM processing of aluminium alloy powders, we review the current state of research and progress from different perspectives of the SLS/SLM, powder metallurgy (P/M) sintering, and pulsed electric current sintering (PECS) of ferrous, non-ferrous alloys, and composite powders as well as laser welding of aluminium alloys in order to provide a basis for follow-on-research that leads to the development of high productivity, SLS/SLM processing of aluminium alloy powders. Moreover, both P/M sintering and PECS of aluminium alloys are evaluated and related to the SLS process with a view to gaining useful insights especially in the aspects of liquid phase sintering (LPS) of aluminium alloys; application of LPS to SLS process; alloying effect in disrupting the surface oxide film of aluminium alloys; and designing of aluminium alloy suitable for the SLS/SLM process. Thereafter, SLS/SLM parameters, powder properties, and different types of lasers with their effects on the processing and densification of aluminium alloys are considered. The microstructure and metallurgical defects associated with SLS/SLM processed parts are also elucidated by highlighting the mechanism of their formation, the main influencing factors, and the remedial measures. Mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile, and fatigue strength of SLS/SLM processed parts are reported. The final part of this paper summarises findings from this review and outlines the trend for future research in the SLS/SLM processing of aluminium alloy powders.     

Effect of process parameters on the properties of selective laser sintered Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Porous scaffolds are biocompatible and bioactive temporary substrates. They should present appropriated microstructure, mechanical properties and surface properties for guiding bone tissue regeneration. In this work, scaffolds of Poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) were printed by Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). The effect of scan spacing (SS) and powder layer thickness (PLT) on the morphology, mechanical properties and dimensional deviations related to the digital model of sintered scaffolds was evaluated. Curling was observed in the first built layers of scaffolds, mainly for scaffolds printed with the lowest PLT. Besides designed pores, the scaffolds also presented micropores derived from the incomplete sinterisation of PHB particles. This morphology can be advantageous for bone regeneration. The variation of PLT caused a higher difference between the values of scaffold mechanical properties than the variation of SS. The scaffolds, except the one printed with the highest PLT or SS, showed mechanical properties within the lower range of human trabecular bone.     

Investigation into mechanical and microstructural properties of polypropylene manufactured by selective laser sintering in comparison with injection molding counterparts

This work evaluated the processibility of a low-isotacticity polypropylene (PP) powder by selective laser sintering (SLS), and systematically analyzed and compared the melting and crystallization characteristics, crystalline structure, tensile properties and thermo-mechanical properties of the PP specimens fabricated by SLS and injection molding (IM). The results show that the PP powder has a nearly spherical shape, smooth surfaces, appropriate particle sizes, a wide sintering window and a low degree of crystallinity, consequently indicating good SLS processibility. In SLS, the molten PP continues to maintain at a high part bed temperature until the whole manufacturing process finished, thus demonstrating a low cooling rate. This gives rise to a high degree of crystallinity, formation of γ phase and coarse microstructure. On the contrary, in IM, the fully molten PP is rapidly cooled down to room temperature after injection, and thus show a higher cooling rate and rapid crystallization, leading to a lower degree of crystallinity, absence of γ phase and finer microstructure. Owing to these differences in crystallization characteristics and crystalline structure mentioned above, the SLS PP parts exhibit higher tensile strengths, tensile moduli and storage moduli, but lower elongation at break, toughness and glass transition temperatures, compared with the IM counterparts.     

纳米二氧化硅增强尼龙12选择性激光烧结成形件

使用纳米二氧化硅增强尼龙12选择性激光烧结(SLS)成形件,通过溶剂沉淀法制备SLS用纳米二氧化硅/尼龙12复合粉末材料,研究了纳米二氧化硅对SLS成形件力学性能的影响,结果表明:纳米二氧化硅以纳米尺寸均匀分散在尼龙12基体中:复合粉末的粒径比纯尼龙12的粉末小,因而有利于提高烧结速率及成形件精度;复合粉末比尼龙12的粉末具有更高的热稳定性;复合粉末烧结件的拉伸强度、拉伸模量以及冲击强度比纯尼龙12烧结件分别提高了约20.9%、39.4%和9.5%,说明纳米二氧化硅对尼龙12 SLS成形件的增强效果显著.     

Fabrication of tissue engineered PCL scaffold by selective laser-sintered machine for osteogeneisis of adipose-derived stem cells

Polycaprolactone (PCL) is a bioresorbable polymer with potential applications for bone and cartilage repair. In this work, three-dimensional (3D) and porous PCL scaffolds were designed and fabricated via selective laser sintering (SLS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the osteogenic potential of porcine adipose-derived stem cells (pASCs) in a laser-sintered PCL (lsPCL) scaffold. The character of the lsPCL scaffold was evaluated. The pore size and the microstructure were observed by SEM. The pASCs were harvested and isolated from pig inguinal area. Then, the lsPCL scaffold was seeded with ASCs and cultured in osteogenic medium for 0 and 14 days. Cell proliferation was measured by MTS. Alkaline phosphatase activity (ALP) was detected using biochemical methods. SEM was used to observe the interaction between scaffold and cell. An energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) was used to analyze the mineralization in each group. Porosity was around 83%; pore size was around 300–400 µm. Both MTS and ALP showed significant increase after subcultivation in osteogenic medium for 14 days. SEM detailed that the pASCs cell can attach well to the lsPCL scaffold. The energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) also demonstrated calcium deposits around pASCs after osteo-induction for 14 days. In contrast, no mineralization was found around ASCs after osteo-induction of 0 days. In conclusion, the laser-sintered PCL is a suitable scaffold for the proliferation of ASCs. The ASCs were also well differentiated into osteoblasts in the 3D, porous, laser-sintered PCL scaffold.     

CNT-reinforced AlSi10Mg composite by selective laser melting: microstructural and mechanical properties

Carbon nanotube (CNT)-AlSi10Mg composites were fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM). The influence of CNTs on the density, microstructure, and strength of SLM CNT-AlSi10Mg composites was investigated. The addition of CNTs over 0.1?wt-% significantly damaged the density due to the high surface energy of the CNTs. The network Si eutectic had no significant difference in either the SLM AlSi10Mg alloy or the CNT-AlSi10Mg composite. Reserved CNTs with a short scale were observed in the SLM CNT(0.5?wt-%)-AlSi10Mg composite. The ultimate tensile strength of the 0.05?wt-% CNT-AlSi10Mg composite was 441.2?±?0.9?MPa, which was higher than that of AlSi10Mg alloy. The grain boundary strengthening played an important role in the reinforcement of CNT-AlSi10Mg composite because of the refined grain.     

Experimental investigations into sintering of magnetic abrasive powder for ultrasonic assisted magnetic abrasive finishing process

The importance of magnetic abrasive powder (MAP) in finishing the surface of work materials as a flexible cutting tool in the presence of a magnetic field during the ultrasonic assisted magnetic abrasive finishing (UAMAF) process is quite evident. A sufficiently intense magnetic field provides the desired magnetic force to the iron particles. This holds nonmagnetic abrasive particles firmly and thus makes flexible chains. However, at higher rotational speeds of the magnet due to the requirement of high centripetal force, the chains start flying away from the finishing zone. In the present work, to overcome this deficiency, bonded MAPs were developed using the sintering technique. The effect of various process parameters on the magnetic property (magnetization) of sintered MAPs was investigated. Design of experiments (DoE) was planned as per the L₈ orthogonal array of the Taguchi method, and magnetizations along with M-H curves for all eight different MAPs were measured. Subsequently, analysis of experimental data was carried out using various techniques to optimize the process parameters. It was observed that sintering temperature affects magnetization the most. Scanned microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were also carried out to investigate bonding strength in sintered MAP.