Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D Printing

Selective laser sintering technology is the use of powder materials (mainly plastic powder, wax powder, metal powder, coated ceramic powder with binder on the surface, coated metal powder and coated sand, etc.) under laser irradiation sintering principle, under computer control according to the interface profile information for selective sintering, layer by layer forming. SLS technology uses powdery materials, and in theory, any fusible powder can be used to make a model, and the resulting model can be used as a real prototype element.                    

When working, the powder piston is raised, and the powder is evenly spread on the forming cylinder piston (working piston) by laying powder silver. The computer controls the two-dimensional scanning trajectory of the light beam according to the slice model of the prototype, and selectively sinters the solid powder material to form one layer of the part.

Prior to sintering, the entire table is heated to slightly below the powder melting temperature to reduce thermal deformation and facilitate bonding with the previous layer. After a layer of powder is completed, the working piston drops a layer thickness, the powder laying system lays new powder, and the laser beam is controlled to scan the new sintered layer. This cycle repeats, layer upon layer, and you get 3D parts.

1. Rapid prototyping. SLS process can quickly manufacture the prototype of the designed part, and evaluate and revise the product in time to improve the design quality. Enables customers to obtain intuitive part models; It can make complex models for teaching and testing.

2.  Preparation and development of new materials. Using the SLS process, some new types of particles can be developed to strengthen composite materials and cemented carbide.

3. Manufacturing and processing of small batch and special parts. In the field of manufacturing, we often encounter the production of small batches and special parts. Such parts have a long processing cycle, high cost, and even cannot be manufactured for some complex parts. Using SLS technology, it is economical to manufacture small batch and complex shape parts.

4. Rapid mold and tool manufacturing. The parts manufactured by SLS can be used directly as molds, such as investment casting, sand casting, injection molding models, high-precision metal models with complex shapes, etc. The molded parts can also be used as functional parts after post-processing.

5. Application in reverse engineering. SLS process can be used in the absence of design drawings or incomplete drawings and no CAD model, according to the existing part prototype, the use of digital technology and CAD technology to re-create the prototype CAD module product.

6. Application in medicine. The parts sintered by SLS process can be used in the manufacture of human engineering because of their high porosity. According to foreign clinical studies on artificial static prepared by SLS technology, artificial bone has good biocompatibility.