Advances in Thermal Modeling of Selective Laser Sintering of Metal Powders

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive thermal model for selective laser sintering of metal powders, accounting for shrinkage and fluid flows, to better understand the physical mechanisms and improve process control.

Contribution

It presents a new temperature transforming model that considers shrinkage and convection, applied to single and multi-line scanning processes in metal powder sintering.

Findings

The model effectively simulates thermal and fluid behaviors during laser sintering.

It provides insights into the effects of scanning strategies on sintering quality.

The approach enhances understanding of physical mechanisms in metal powder SLS.

Abstract

Selective laser sintering (SLS) of single component metal powders is a rapid prototyping technology in which a high-energy laser beam scans, melts, shrinks and consolidates metal powders with single component. For better understanding physical mechanisms during laser sintering of single-component metal particles, a temperature transforming model with the consideration of shrinkage and convective flows is introduced to analyze the thermal/fluid behaviors in selective laser sintering of single powder layer. The model is also applied to investigate the sintering of powders on top of existing sintered layers under single- multiple-line scanning manners according to the practical manufacturing processes.