Additive manufacturing technologies, such as selective laser melting of polymers enable manufacturing of complex parts without tools and forms. Due to high temperature during processing, a degradation of the used plastic powder occurs. The unmolded material in the building chamber, the so-called partcake, can be removed from the finished component after building and reused for another process. To realize reproducible part properties refreshing of partcake powder is necessary. This paper presents results on the investigations of degradation behavior of polyamide 12 powder during selective laser melting process. The influence of different ambient conditions, e.g. ambient air, nitrogen and vacuum, is investigated in a model experiment. Oven aged polymer powders were analyzed with regard to their process relevant material properties. Considered material properties are phase transition temperatures, melting viscosity or molecular weight. The results of the investigations show, that the influence of high process temperatures on used material can be reduced using other ambient conditions. Process relevant material properties are minor affected by storage under vacuum. In addition to that the influence of different ambient conditions as well as a material pretreatment on the degradation behavior of sls materials, e.g. exclusion of intermolecular located oxygen, is analyzed. To correlate these results of the model experiment with real manufacturing process laser sintering experiments are done. PA12 powder is used for several building processes with refreshing. Produced specimens and resulting partcake powder are analyzed and correlated to the results of model experiment. Correlating effects, regarding process relevant material properties as well as aging influenced mechanical properties of specimens can be detected.
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes can provide great input for solving recently encountered challenges of the global market such as mass customization, highly dynamic environments, and the decrease of time needed from a draft to final products. This study aims at contributing to the issue of material limitations typically present in AM by researching possibilities of directly using technically relevant and commercially available polymer granules in melt extrusion processes. In order to extend the knowledge on the processing of semicrystalline polymers in melt extrusion based processes, different temperature induced influences on mechanical and morphological properties are investigated for poly(propylene). Mechanical tests are conducted to evaluate the effects and interdependencies of substrate, extrusion, and cooling temperature. Finally, based on the identified mechanical and rheological behavior of the material, a process window for the used materials is suggested.
Concerning individualization, the requirements to products have increased. The trend towards individualized serial products faces manufacturing techniques with demands of increasing flexibility. Additive manufacturing techniques generate components directly out of a CAD data set while requiring no specific tool or form. Due to this additive manufacturing processes comply, in opposite to conventional techniques, with these increased demands on processing technology. With a variety of available additive manufacturing techniques, some of them have a high potential to generate series products with reproducible properties. Selective laser melting (SLM) of powder materials shows the highest potential for this application. If components made by SLM are desired to be applied in technical series products, their achievable properties play a major part. These properties are mainly determined by the processed materials. The range of present commercially available materials for SLM of polymer powders is limited. This paper shows interrelations of various material properties to create a basic understanding of sintering processes and additional qualifying new materials. Main properties of polymer materials, with regard to their consolidation are viscosity and surface energy. On the one hand the difference of the surface energy between powder and melt influences, the wetting behavior, and thus the penetration depth. On the other hand, a high surface tension is fundamental for good coalescence of bordering particles. To fulfill these requirements limits of the surface tension will be determined on the basis of a reference material. For these reason methods for determining surface tension of solids, powders and melts are analyzed, to carry out a possible process-related material characterization. Not only an insight into observed SLM phenomena is provided but also hints concerning suitable material selection.
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