Effecting of the Glass Filled Powder on Properties and Part Quality Produced by LS Processing

Abstract

Polyamide (PA) using in selective laser sintering SL process, where Polyamide Duraform PA and Duraform GF polyamide of the 3D System Company and PA 2200 and PA 3200 GF of EOS Company are suitable for functional parts where GF composite material consist of polymer and glass filled. In these investigated aimed two methods was used, to find systematic approach to improving the quality of powder and quality of parts aimed to minimize the orange peel texture. LS of new powder (PA2200) EOS with a different proportion, volume of glass Beads (0 -23%) was used. The microstructure of the mixture powders was analysed. The designed parts were built flat, in order to determine shrinkage values during sintering and curling and comparison between the normal pyramid which produced by PA3200 EOS parts. The highest density can be achieved at the glass bead ratio 50% and laser power of 15 Watt, owing to the melted PA2200 fills the gaps between the solid particles the high density solid glass particles may contribute in improving the density of the sintered part. Part quality can be affected by the change in parameters processing and orientation. The approach in this work described the surface quality affected by the continuing increase glass beads values, the best values of Ra singed with the lowest glass bead ratio 30% by weight and the worst was 3200 EOS powder. And the colour of the parts tended to darker when the value of glass beads increasing.