Development of a characterization approach for the sintering behavior of new thermoplastics for selective laser sintering

Currently the standard thermoplastic powders for selective laser sintering are based on polyamide12. This leads to restrictions for many applications e. g. in the industrial or medical field. Thus, research on further polymers with enhanced chemical or higher thermal stability plays a major role for applying additive manufacturing to serial production of individual components. Currently, great efforts are made to process new technical thermoplastics like polypropylene or polyetherketones by selective laser sintering. In this paper, the suitability and processing behavior by means of melting and ( isothermal) crystallization are studied, and a method for the qualification of new materials is presented. Based on this method processing parameters for new thermoplastics can systematically be found. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V.