An optimization approach of selective laser sintering considering energy consumption and material cost

Selective laser sintering technology is a method of additive manufacturing that is growing with widely application. Due to the increasing tense of energy situation, it is also timely to consider the economic and environmental issues of growth in additive manufacturing. The innovative selective laser sintering technology optimization approach proposed in this article encourages and enables the designers and users to obtain optimal sintering parameters and reduces energy consumption and cost in sintering process. This paper creates a potential approach for realizing the relationship between main sintering parameters and energy consumption and material cost. To achieve high efficiency of the process, optimization of parameters based on energy and cost consumption are investigated. A multi-objective model with optimized constraints is set up and solved by non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II. Energy consumption and material cost are treated as the two objectives, which are affected by three variables, namely scanning speed, gap distance and layer thickness. The effectiveness of the multi-objective optimization model was verified experimentally and results are fully discussed. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.