Advances in Thermal Modeling of Selective Laser Sintering of Metal Powders

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.