OPTIMUM SCALING OF THE SLS METAL PARTS USING FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

The accuracy of the metallic parts manufactured by selective laser sintering (SLS) technology is mainly influenced by the second cycle that has to be followed in the oven, when, at 1070 degrees C, bronze is being infiltrated into the parts. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used for estimating the shrinkage of metallic parts, that occurs during the post processing stage in the oven. The obtained results were processed further on and a new original software package has been developed by the authors for calculating better the applied scale factors of the SLS process. The software has been succesfully tested and validated on some case studies (SLS tools) that were manufactured at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, in cooperation with an industrial company from Romania.