Selective Laser Processing of PTFE Modified Polyamide Powders for Tribological Applications

摘要

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are undergoing continuous development and the one of its most important issue is extension of scope of processed polymer materials. Besides adapting commercially popular plastics there is a visible trend for development polymers dedicated to special demands of end-user application. The example of such materials is Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) modified polyamide (PA/PTFE) dedicated for Laser Sintering (LS). Its properties enables AM manufacturing components with increased resistance to tribological wear. This paper shows research on LS process evaluation for PA/PTFE powders. The research covers initial material characterisation and LS process window optimisation. Also the geometrical structure, mechanical and tribological properties of the LS manufactured PA/PTFE objects were investigated. The results of the research were compared to characteristics of non-modified PA materials. It shows that dedicated and optimised for PA/PTFE materials LS process parameters allows to achieve higher mechanical properties, significantly increased resistance to abrasive wear in comparison to standard LS processed polyamides.