Selective Laser Sintering

1. Selective Laser Sintering By: Ren Merritt

2. What it is • Selective laser sintering is a rapid prototyping technique that uses a high powered laser to fuse smaller particles together • The process is an additive that adds to the object it is creating

3. How it works • The high powered laser fuses small particles of plastic, metal, ceramic, or glass powders the laser fuses many thin layers of the dust to create the 3-D digital shape scanned to the machine. • It uses STL files

4. Pros • SLS offers the key advantage of making functional parts in essentially final materials • Material properties can be quite close to those of the intrinsic materials. • The process can be quite fast • Increase product reliability – identify design problems quickly • Produce durable parts without tooling • Prototypes can withstand form, fit and functional testing • Parts can be readily joined mechanically or with adhesives • No support structures are needed — parts are cleaner and require less post-processing • Can be finished and painted

5. Cons • It may take a considerable length of cool-down time before the part can be removed from the machine. Large parts with thin sections may require as much as two days of cooling time. • However, the system is mechanically more complex than stereolithography and most other technologies. • Surface finishes and accuracy are not quite as good as with stereolithography

6. Cost & Speed • The process can be done in hours or a day • The price of the process is different depending on the size of the object

7. Works cited • www.Wikipedia.com • home.att.net/~castleisland/sls_int.htm