Optimization and Analysis of Mechanical Properties for Selective Laser Sintered Polyamide Parts

摘要

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is one of the widely used rapid prototyping (RP) processes. The main challenge of this process is to choose the correct working parameters to attain the desired shape, size, and strength of different products. Therefore, this article pertains to an experimental study carried out to understand mechanical properties of selective laser sintered polyamide parts. Experiments were established based on face-centered central composite design (CCD) of response surface methodology (RSM). The effect of various process parameters on different properties (i.e., ultimate tensile strength, % elongation, yield strength, and Young's modulus) was analyzed. Analysis of variance was employed to check the adequacy of the developed models. Furthermore, the optimal combination of these process parameters has been eval uated. Considering ultimate tensile strength, % elongation, yield strength, and Young's modulus simultaneously, the optimum values of dif ferent process parameters have been obtained as: laser power, 32 W; scan spacing, 0.17 mm; bed temp, 178°C; and scan count, 2.