Thermoplastic Polymers and Polymer Composites Used in Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) Method

Abstract

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a powder bed fusion (PBF) additive manufacturing (AM) technique that uses high-energy beams (laser beams, electron beams, or an infrared panel heater) to coalescence (or melt) polymer particles by a layer-by-layer procedure to create 3D solid models. This chapter describes the types of thermoplastic polymers and thermoplastic polymer composites, which are currently used and available in SLS-AM method, and their specific details in terms of materials and materials preparation for Laser Sintering (LS) process, which include physical, mechanical, and microstructural aspects. The most commonly used thermoplastic polymers in this method are polyamides (mainly Polyamide 12, followed by Polyamide 11, Polyamide 6), and non-polyamide polymers like polyolefins (Polypropylene, Polyethylene), Polyetheretherketone, thermoplastic urethane. In this section, the polymer composites that can be produced via SLS method, and the type of additives that are used to create polymer composites such as glass beads, glass fibers, carbon fibers, carbon black, silicon carbide, aluminum powder, nano-silica, nano-clay, nano-Al2O3 have also been discussed. The production of polymer composite structures with SLS-AM method, and developing the interface compatibility properties of the additives with the polymers are among the current issues in this area. Therefore, as the currently used and well-known commercial products, this section covers material developments in SLS method, the novel type of polymers, additives, and polymeric composites, and preparation characteristics of polymer composites and blends.