Design and investigation of selective laser sintering part properties

Abstract

A wide range of material used in Selective Laser Sintering SLS process opens the research thrust in the Additive Manufacturing AM or Solid Freeform Fabrication SFF technology for the researchers A lot of research work has been done on the materials like polymer metal composite ceramics and sand in the SLS process to improve the quality and mechanical properties of parts produced by optimizing the process parameters Still there is a wide scope to optimize the SLS process parameters which are using materials such as sand ceramics and metals Also among the different response variables available the impact of surface roughness on SLS stainless steel metal parts and the quality of sand mould casting parts have not yet been analyzed Further if the gap of the influencing process parameters on different materials is fulfilled, the operator can easily utilize the SLS process before carrying out the actual process The main objective of this thesis focuses on the design and investigation of SLS process parameter and final part properties Also a manual suggestive process parameter selection methodology has developed for the laser sintering processes. It is accomplished by optimization of SLS process parameters on the surface roughness of stainless steel parts and assessment of quality as well as mechanical properties of SLS sand mould casting parts have been analyzed The first experiment emphasizes thoroughlythe effect of process parameters likely laser power, orientation and scan spacing on the surface roughness of the parts The Taguchi s design of newlineexperiments approach L9 Orthogonal Array OA and Analysis of variance ANOVA are used to study the significance of variables and the contribution of each parameter on the surface roughness newline newline