Consolidation phenomena in laser and powder-bed based layered manufacturing

J.-P. Kruth1 (1), G. Levy2 (1), F. Klocke3 (1), T.H.C. Childs 4 (1)
1
K.U.Leuven, Division PMA, Leuven, Belgium
2
FHS - University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen, Switzerland
3
Fraunhofer, Institute for Production Technology IPT, Aachen, Germany
4
University of Leeds, School of Mechanical Engineering, UK
Abstract
Layered manufacturing (LM) is gaining ground for manufacturing prototypes (RP), tools (RT) and functional end
products (RM). Laser and powder bed based manufacturing (i.e. selective laser sintering/melting or its variants)
holds a special place within the variety of LM processes: no other LM techniques allow processing polymers,
metals, ceramics as well as many types of composites. To do so, however, quite some different powder
consolidation mechanisms are invoked: solid state sintering, liquid phase sintering, partial melting, full melting,
chemical binding, etc. The paper describes which type of laser-induced consolidation can be applied to what
type of material. It tries to understand the underlying physical mechanisms and the interaction with the material
properties. The paper demonstrates that, although SLS/SLM can process polymers, metals, ceramics and
composites, quite some limitations and problems cause the palette of applicable materials still to be limited.
There is still a long way to go in tuning the processes and materials in order to enlarge the applicability of LM.
This is not surprising if one compares it to the decades of R&D work devoted to tuning processes and materials
for hot or cold forming, metal cutting (e.g. development of free machining steels), casting and injection
moulding (including powder injection moulding: MIM, CIM, etc.).
Keywords
Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing, Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Selective Laser Melting (SLM)
processing engineering polymers, metals, ceramics and a
wide range of composites. In order to cover this wide
range of materials, the laser processing of powder
materials in SLS/SLM calls on various consolidation
mechanisms: the binding of polymers, metals, ceramics
and their mixtures or composites varies substantially with
initial powder composition, the final aimed material
composition and the aimed material structure (aimed
porosity or density, microstructure, properties, etc.). Some
process variants may apply post-processing after
SLS/SLM: in such case, the selected layer consolidation
mechanism should account for the post-process as well:
e.g. need for open porosity if post-infiltration is applied.

1 INTRODUCTION
Layered manufacturing (LM) goes back to the late 1980s,
early 1990s [95, 98] with a clear breakthrough in 1994 at
which time machine sales took off exponentially: see
Figure 1 [216]. Today, distinction is made between Rapid
Prototyping (RP) and Rapid Manufacturing (RM) [49, 121,
164].
x

RP means the production of prototypes, visual design

aids, touch, feel, fit and assembly test parts, etc., that
are used in the product development phase and are
not meant to be equivalent to real production parts at
all levels.

RM means the production of functional parts that are

meant to be used as real production parts (end
products) and should meet the various basic
requirements put to such production parts. Rapid
Tooling (RT) may be considered in this context as a
sub-category of RM, i.e. production of functional tool
components produced by layered manufacturing. [41,
153, 181, 208]
Many layered manufacturing techniques exist today,
the
most
popular
being:
photo-polymerisation
(Stereolithography (SLA) and its derivates), ink-jet printing
(IJP), 3D printing (3DP), Fused Deposition Modelling
(FDM), Selective Laser Sintering or Melting (SLS/SLM
1
and EBM ) and to a lesser extend Laminated Object
Manufacturing (LOM and similar sheet stacking
processes) and laser cladding (LC) processes [98]. The
importance of these technologies is confirmed by a recent
study of NACFAM (National Council for Advanced
Manufacturing, USA) that has identified Rapid
Manufacturing as the most innovative and potentially
disruptive manufacturing technology to emerge within the
next 3 to 5 years [139]. Many of those techniques are
however limited to Rapid Prototyping as they do not
allow common engineering materials to be processed with
sufficient mechanical properties (polymers, metals,
ceramics, and composites thereof).
In the prospect of Rapid Manufacturing, SLS/SLM
seems to be the most versatile process, capable of

Figure 1 : Yearly additive system unit sales worldwide

[216]
This paper gives a survey of powder consolidation
mechanisms applicable in SLS and SLM for various types
of materials.
2

2.1 Types of powder consolidation mechanism

(binding mechanism)
Laser-based consolidation of 3D parts from layers of
powder material pre-deposited on a build platform is
commonly referred to as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS)
or Selective Laser Melting (SLM). The distinction between
SLS and SLM is rough, vague and does not cover all

Selective Electron Beam Melting (EBM) may be considered as a variant

of this category.

Annals of the CIRP Vol. 56/2/2007

CLASSIFICATION

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doi:10.1016/j.cirp.2007.10.004

Figure 2 : Laser-based powder consolidation mechanisms

types of consolidation. Various papers describe possible
ways to consolidate material with a laser [18, 126]. A more
detailed classification of consolidation mechanisms is
given in Figure 2.
Solid State Sintering (SSS) is a consolidation process
occurring below the materials melting temperature:
diffusion of atoms in solid state (volume diffusion, grain
boundary diffusion or surface diffusion [82, 156]) will
create necks between adjacent powder particles that will
grow with time (Figure 3) [66, 204]. This binding
mechanism is only rarely applied in layer manufacturing
(LM) as diffusion of atoms in solid state is slow and not
very compatible with the desired high laser scan speed
that should yield process productivity and economic
feasibility. However, it is one of the consolidation
mechanisms suited for consolidating ceramic powders
[121]: see 2.2. SSS diffusion sintering is sometimes
applied in post-processing of metallic or ceramic parts
after initial (partial) laser consolidation using solid state,
liquid phase or chemical binding [121]: see 4.

Figure 3 : Typical neck formed between two stainless

steel powder grains obtained with Nd:YAG laser [204]
Liquid Phase sintering (LPS) and partial melting include
a number of binding mechanisms in which part of the
powder material is melted while other parts remain solid.
The liquefied material will spread between the solid
particles almost instantaneously as it is driven by intense
capillary forces. This allows much higher laser scan
velocities than for SSS. The material that melts may be
different from the one remaining solid: the former low
melting point material is then often called the binder, while
the high melting point material is generally called the
structural material. Different ways exist to bring those
distinct binder and structural materials together:

mixture of two-component powder (i.e. separate binder

and structural powder particles),

using composite powder particles that have a micro

composite structure containing the structural and
binder material, or

using coated particles where the binder material is

applied as a coating around the structural material.
The binder material (coating) will preferentially absorb
the incident laser radiation. This enforces the intended
melting of the binder.
When a different binder and structural material is applied,
the two materials may differ substantially: e.g. polymer
binder versus metallic structural material, metallic binder
vs. ceramic structural material, low-melting metal (e.g. Cu)
vs. high melting metal (e.g. steel or Fe). Examples and
references are given in next sections. In all cases, the
binder may be permanent (i.e. remain as part of the final
product) or may be sacrificial (i.e. removed during a debinding cycle). In both cases, the green part coming out
of the SLS machine might be porous (and become even
more porous after de-binding) and might require a postdensification process: the latter being generally either a
furnace infiltration process or a furnace post-sintering
process (thermal sintering, HIP or other). In most cases,
thermal post-sintering without applying pressure is not
feasible: the porosity of the green SLS part is still too
high (25-50%) to initiate further densification by thermal
heat only. Alternatively, this process may be used to
produce porous structures [122, 168, 185].
Partial melting is also possible even in cases where no
clearly distinct binder and structural materials are used.
SLS parameters are then adjusted to only partially melt
the powder particles, which may be a single phase
material or a mixture of different powders but without
distinct binder powder material (particles):
1. When the heat supplied to a powder particle is
insufficient to melt the whole particle, only a shell at
the grain border is melted. The core of the grain
remains solid. This way the molten material will form
necks between the particles and act as a binder
between the nonmolten particle cores. This binding
mechanism can arise as well with metals as with
polymers, although the consolidation of polymer
powders may also result from other mechanisms
(consolidation at the glass transition temperature,
which is lower than the melting temperature, polymer
chain rearrangement and cross-linking).
Such partial melting phenomenon and the resulting
liquid neck formation were modeled at EPFL,
Lausanne, [53]. Using a simple thermal model, skin and
core temperatures of the powder particles were

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calculated. This way the minimal pulse energy to fully

melt the particle can be calculated. Below this value,
the core temperature never exceeds the melting
temperature and only partial melting is obtained.
2. Powders consisting of multiple phases or a mixture of
different powder particles can be classified as partial
melting when they are only partially molten. For
example, the University of Leuven experimented with a
Fe-Fe3P-Ni-Cu powder mixture, aiming at the
production of fully dense parts [93]. The resulting part
clearly contains unmolten Fe particles (see Figure 37).
None of the 4 powders can be identified as a distinct
binder material. The addition however of a melting
point lowering additive like Fe3P or Cu3P is favorable
in making the process more energy efficient: see
details in 3.2.2, section B2.
3. Partial melting may also occur when using a single
material powder having a bi-modal distribution: small
particles are melted, while larger ones remains solid.
Liquid phase sintering and partial melting may have
advantage over full melting (see below), even when
aiming at full dense parts. The former allows the laser
consolidation speed (scan speed, scan spacing) to be
increased drastically. The resulting economic benefit has
to be considered against the disadvantage of the need for
post-densification. Comparative studies demonstrated that
molds made from PA-coated steel that are post-infiltrated
with copper may not only be more cost effective [103], but
also technically may perform better due to the beneficial
properties of copper [106, 208].

the green Al part [172]. Other (potential) examples of

Selective Laser Reactive Sintering were investigated at
the University of Texas at Austin [11]. Some investigators
tried to apply self-propagating high-temperature synthesis
(SHS) in which a low laser power induces a selfpropagating exothermal reaction capable of self-heating
and consolidating the powder in a controllable way
[107,177,182]. This allows reducing the laser power
significantly. The metallic liquid phase stays longer and
the accuracy of the produced piece will be higher. Shi et.
al. applied a SHS process to laser sinter metallic materials
(Ni-Al, Al-Ti, Ni-Ti) [176]. The Osaka Sangyo University
tried to produce cermets (Al2O3-Cu), ceramics (MoSi2),
and intermetallics (TiAl) by SLS induced chemical reaction
[80]. This will be discussed in 3.4.7.
2.2 Type of consolidation mechanisms versus
materials
The applicable type of consolidation is basically
dependent on the material being processed. Table 1 gives
an overview of what material can be basically
consolidated with the various binding mechanisms.
2.3 Influence of laser type
Different types of lasers are used for powder-bed based
RM: CO2, Nd:YAG (lamp pumped, diode pumped, or Qswithed) [60], fibre lasers, disc lasers, Cu-vapour lasers
[76]. The type of laser has a large influence on the
consolidation of powder particles, because:

Full melting is a third major consolidation mechanism,

often applied to achieve fully dense parts without need for
any post-process densification. Major progress has been
achieved towards full melting of metal powders up to
densities of 99.9% by applying modern laser sources and
optics yielding high energy densities in the spot [105].
Dedicated SLM machines are now offered by 4 German
vendors [58, 103]. As compared to early day SLS
machines equipped with CO2 lasers, these machines
apply solid state lasers: diode pumped Nd:YAG, fibre or
disc lasers [150].
Full melting has the main advantage to produce almost full
dense products in one step, but also has drawbacks that
require careful process control:
x

laser absorption of various materials greatly depends

on the laser wavelength: e.g. high absorption of
polymers and oxy-ceramics at 10.6 m wavelength of
CO2 laser; high absorption of metals and carboceramics at 1 m wavelength of Nd:YAG, fibre and
disc lasers [105, 196];

the possible consolidation mechanism highly depends

on features like energy density: e.g. SLM of metals
and ceramics requires a high energy density that is
more easily achieved with fibre and disc lasers (high
beam quality, i.e. high focusability);

laser mode (continous, pulsed, Q-switched,) also

has a large influence on consolidation (see end of
2.4).
Several researchers investigated the influence of different
laser types on the absorption and consolidation of
powders in SLS/SLM. Some did it experimentally [100,
114, 156], others by simulation [114].

The high temperature gradients and densification ratio

during the process yield high internal stresses or part
distortion (from 50% powder porosity to 100% density
in one step) [6, 134].

2.4 Problems in consolidation

There are two main general problems in consolidation.
One, applicable to all process variants other than the full
melting of metals, stems from the short material heating
times caused by the scanning laser beam, relative to the
time required for consolidation, and the fact that it is only
temperature effects and gravity and capillary forces that
can provide the driving force (there is no mechanical
pressure, as in moulding processes). It can lead, as has
already been written, to porosity in parts. Post-processing
is then required if a pore-free material is needed. For
polymer processing, it means that melt viscosity must be
kept less than some critical value. For example Nylon-12
(PA 12) with an in-process viscosity K | 100 Pas can be
fully densified under surface tension driving forces J | 30
-3
mN/m (J/K | 0.3 10 m/s), but polycarbonate (viscosity |
5000 Pas, and similar surface tension) can not [28].
The other problem, important for the full melting of metals,
is quite the opposite. Here the viscosity K is about 1 to 5
mPas [16], the surface tension J about 1 to 2 N/m [12] and
consequently J/K | 100 to 1000 m/s. The problem is not
time for flow, but controlling the flow [87]. The pool of

The risk of balling and dross formation in the melt

pool 2 may result in bad surface finish.
Chemical induced binding is a fourth main consolidation
mechanism. Today it is not commonly used in commercial
LM equipment, but it turns out to be a feasible
consolidation mechanism for polymers, metals and
ceramics. IPT-Aachen has applied chemical binding for
laser sintering SiC ceramic powder [88]. Chemical induced
binding of metals could e.g. be invoked for sintering Al
powder by making the Al react with the N2 atmosphere
used commonly in SLS machines, thus creating an AlN
binder phase holding the Al particles together. Such
mechanism has been used by the University of
Queensland, be it during post-sintering in a N2 furnace,
rather than during the initial SLS phase itself, at which
stage a sacrificial polymer binder was used to consolidate
2
Those melt pool phenomena have been studied within the CIRP STC-E
Working Group on Melt pool phenomena in SLS/SLM/LC that met in
Leuven (Jan. 2004), Aachen (Oct. 2004) and Leeds (Sept. 2005). They are
dealt with in 2.4 and 3.5.

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Solid State Sintering

Liquid Phase Sintering

Partial melting

Full melting

No

Yes (e.g. PS)

Yes (e.g. PA)

Seldom

Yes (many kinds)

Yes (steel, Ti...)

Yes (e.g. Alu)

No

Yes (e.g. WC-CO)

No

Yes (e.g. Al2O3 Cu)

Ceramics

Yes (Phenix)

Yes (e.g. SiC)

Yes (e.g. ZrO2)

Yes (e.g. SiC)

Other composites

No

Yes

No

Yes

Polymers
Metals
Cermets/HM

Chemical
Seldom (e.g. partial
cross linking PMMA)

Table 1: Consolidation mechanisms versus materials

molten metal must wet the previously processed metal
But with oxygen contamination of steels, and dependent
below it (except on the rare and sometimes problematic
on sulphur and nitrogen content too, dJ/dT can be positive
occasions that it is an overhang). And when it solidifies, its
[83, 159]. Then the melt pool becomes humped. Again,
upper surface must be flat enough to enable a next layer
such effects are clearly seen in welding [127, 128], as well
of powder to be spread over it. Both materials properties
as in SLM [156, 158].
and processing variables can influence these things.
In the previous paragraphs, different effects at the under
As far as wetting the material below is concerned,
and top side of the melt pool have been considered. But in
contamination, usually by oxygen, and in that case either
SLM there is a leading edge to the melt pool too, where
as oxide, impurities within the powder or as trapped gas in
the surface, subject to the surface tension induced flow, is
the powder bed, is a main materials cause of
advancing into powder that at some distance ahead of the
consolidation problems. For example, the surface tension
melt front will certainly still be below the solidus
of pure liquid iron near its melting point is almost 2 N/m,
temperature. The wetting or not of this solid powder and, if
but 0.02 wt.% of oxygen reduces this towards 1 N/m [12,
it is wetted, its dragging or not into the melt pool, are
110]. Liquid iron will not spread out over an iron oxide
further complications of the consolidation process that
covered surface. Even in the absence of such
have not been systematically studied. It may be that the
contamination, there may be a problem of a liquid metal
compromises needed to balance good wetting or
wetting its solid form, if the solid has almost the same
remelting of previously melted material, with the top
temperature. In this homologous wetting case, there is no
surface of the melt pool freezing sufficiently flat, and the
driving force for wetting. It has been suggested on the
powder bed not being disturbed too much ahead of and
basis of experimental studies on a stainless steel [35] that
around a currently melting track, will put a large constraint
it is necessary for the previously processed material to be
on metals and powder preparations that are suitable for
re-melted by the currently melted material. The excess
processing by SLM. Much basic work remains to be done
energy (and hence the higher peak temperatures in the
in this area.
melt pool) required for this will have consequences for the
The consolidation flows and the materials dependent
quality of the upper surface of the melt pool.
phenomena accompanying them and discussed above
When temperature gradients are created in a melt pool,
differ from flow instabilities in a pool that can arise
there is the potential for convective motions in the pool to
because of its shape. Long thin melt pools are known to
reduce those gradients. Temperature gradients through
break up into balls, called balling and commonly
the depth of the pool, causing density gradients, and
described as due to Rayleigh instabilities [3, 19, 74, 87,
hence buoyancy forces, are probably of no importance to
135, 136, 157]. For a free melt pool, as would describe a
the millimeter or less melt pool sizes of SLM (compared to
single melted track in a deep powder bed, balling is
the much larger sizes that can make buoyancy effects
predicted for pools (imagined to be cylindrical) of length to
relevant to welding [137]), although see [142]. But
diameter ratio greater than S. Balling as this ratio is
temperature gradients in the surface, coupled with a
approached is reported by [27, 156, 157]. That work also
temperature dependent surface tension, can cause rapid
showed length to diameter ratio increasing with laser scan
motions (tens of cm/s or more), known as thermo-capillary
speed. Thus in this case, instability limits processing to a
or Marangoni flow. The equation below defines the
low scan speed. A melt pool on a solid substrate can also
dimensionless Marangoni number Ma.
be unstable, depending on its contact behaviour with the
solid [38, 169]. A limiting length to diameter ratio of 2.1
dJ w N dJ dT w N
has been reported [96], also creating an upper limit to the
M a { (1)
laser scan speed.
dx K w dT dx K w
Most balling studies have been performed in conditions of
It is the ratio of the speed by which a surface temperature
single line or raster scanning powder beds when the lasergradient dT/dx may be reduced by convection or
caused temperature rise has essentially been due to the
conduction (w is the linear size of the pool, N is its thermal
current line scan. At higher scanning velocities and/or
diffusivity) [137]. For typical ferrous material property
shorter vector lengths, however, previously scanned
values, also supposing an initial temperature gradient
tracks are not yet solidified when a new track is being
dT/dx to be due to the difference between liquidus and
scanned. Thus, the actual width of the melt pool is
solidus temperatures over the half-width of the melt pool,
enlarged, since it now spans multiple scan tracks [135,
and w = 1 mm, Ma can be calculated to be of the order
136]. Therefore, the length-to-width ratio may actually be
1000. Marangoni flow dominates.
reduced (even if the melt pool length enlarges), resulting
When dJ/dT is negative, as it naturally is with decreasing
in a more stable behaviour compared with a single track
surface energy from the liquidus to the vapourisation
scanned with the same parameters. Mercelis [135]
temperature, the Marangoni flow is from high to low
showed that melt pool dimensions may depend much
temperature, that is to say from the centre to the edge of
more on the geometry of the 3D part and the 2D scanning
the melt pool, and a flattened or dished surface is created.
path, than on the laser power and scanning velocity.
Therefore, also the scan track instability cannot be
3

HM = hardmetals

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examined without taking into account the scanned

geometry.
That brings this section finally to the influence of process
variables on problems in consolidation. First is the
influence of laser type (see also 2.3). The higher the
laser absorption into the powder bed, the less scope there
is for variation in absorption, and the easier is the process
to control. Pulsed laser beams and smaller beam
diameters may lead to smaller, more stable melt pools,
and in some cases pulsing may result in plasma formation
and recoil forces adding a mechanical component to
consolidation phenomena [97, 144, 157]. Smaller layer
thickness reduces the need for over-heat if re-melting the
previous layer is important. Thinner layers means finer
powder sizes. These in turn are easier to melt due to their
higher surface-to-volume ratio. Processing changes that
lead to smaller melt pools also seem to lead to easier
consolidation. It may be that a final problem in
consolidation is that it cannot be scaled up to faster
processing speeds.
3 DISCUSSION OF MATERIAL CLASSES
In this section the consolidation phenomena
discussed per material class:

are

Polymers: i.e. substance with a high molecular weight

which is made of many repeating smaller chemical
units or molecules.

Metals: i.e. substance whose atoms are connected by

metal bonds.

Ceramics: inorganic and non-metallic materials.

Cermets and hard metals: i.e. composites in which

ceramic particles are bound in a metal matrix (binder).

Composites: mixtures of different materials which

result in an inhomogeneous compound. Cermets and
hard metals may be considered a special class of
composites.

(semi-)crystalline thermoplastics

x amorphous thermoplastics.
When heated up from very low to very high temperatures,
all those thermoplastic materials will change from a hard
(solid and glassy) structure to a softer (tough leathery or
rubbery, solid or non-pourable) structure and finally turn
into a viscous flowing melt. Materials however differ in the
way and the temperatures at which those transitions
occur. Semi-crystalline polymers have a glass transition
temperature Tg that is below or around room temperature
(-100 to 50C) and a distinct melting temperature Tm that
is above 100C (between 100 and 400C) at which a
significant volume change happens. Amorphous polymers
do not depict a clear melting temperature range. They
have a glass transition temperature Tg that lies around
100C and above which the material will gradually evolve
to a leathery, rubbery and finally liquid state as
temperature increases, without clear transitions. Figure 5
indicates the glass transition range ('Tg) and melting
range ('Tm) for three important semi-crystalline polymers
(PE, PP, PA 6) and indicates for three amorphous
polymers (PS, PC, PMMA) the glass transition
temperature ranges ('Tg) and the temperature range in
which the transition to leathery material goes quickly ('Tf).
This last range ('Tf) can physically not be defined exactly.

3.1 Polymers
Even though polymer is the most processed type of
material in SLS/SLM, the consolidation phenomena
invoked for polymers are probably still amongst the least
understood or at least the least described in literature [81].
This explains why commercial applications of SLS today
are limited to a small number of polymers: mainly
polyamide (PA 12 and PA 11), and some polycarbonate
(PC) [48], polystyrene (PS) and variants of those [175].

Figure 5 : Phases and transition temperatures of some

polymers
Notice also that the Tg and Tm values largely depend on
the molecular weight (MW) of the polymer. This explains
why there might be a significant difference in SLS
processability between a low and a high molecular weight
PA or PE.
The temperature transitions and melting range of
polymers can be observed by recording a DSC plot by
Differential Scanning Calorimetry analysis. It measures
the difference in the amount of heat required to increase
the temperature of a sample and a reference as a function
of temperature. Both the sample and reference are
maintained at very nearly the same temperature
throughout the experiment. Figure 6 gives the DSC plots
of Duraform PA 12 and PA 6 [166]. The plots illustrate the
much smaller melting range (small width of peak around
187C) and the smaller melting temperature (Tm=187C)
of PA 12 as compared to PA 6 (Tm=223C). This explains,
besides viscosity differences (see 2.4 and 3.1.1), why
PA 12 is more prone to SLS than PA 6 (or PA 66 having
Tm= 262C and a wider peak than PA 12) [212].
The laser consolidation of (semi-)crystalline polymer
powder will happen by heating above their melting
temperature Tm. Semi-crystalline materials have a highly
ordered molecular structure with sharp melt points. They
do not gradually soften with a temperature increase but
rather remain hard until a given quantity of heat is
absorbed and then rapidly change into a viscous liquid.

Figure 4: Thermoplastic polymers (Red = material used in

SLS)

In literature there is no agreement on the nomenclature of

the physical state of parts after laser powder processing.
Laser consolidation of polymers normally involves melting
of thermoplastics (partial-SLS or full-SLM). A clear
distinction should be made between (Figure 4):

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consolidation process:
characteristic differs.

The molten polymer flows in between the powder

particles, forming sintering necks. With enough heat, the
complete layer is fully molten and overlaps to the previous
layer. As the molten polymer cools down below Tm,
polymer crystals nucleate and grow, recreating regions of
ordered molecular chains (crystallites) mixed up with
disordered amorphous regions. Above Tm, the polymer
depicts a relatively low viscosity, as compared to
amorphous polymers, which favours the rate and amount
of consolidation. The densities obtained will be close to full
density and the mechanical properties will be close to
those of moulded polymers. However, the freezing of the
polymer at Tm coincides with an important shrinkage
(phenomenon not occurring with amorphous polymers),
that may induce geometrical inaccuracies and distortion of
the part (Figure 13). A good way to prevent this is to
preheat the polymer powder to a temperature slightly
below its melting temperature and keep it there for a
certain time after consolidation [26,197, 212].

the

powder

layers

thermal

The material is in powder form with a certain particle size

distribution (Figure 8) and the induced energy, heating the
fine powder particles, may lead to evaporation or
disintegration which in turn disturbs the process. It shields
off the laser window and the IR heating elements. In short,
this has a negative influence on the process consistency
and the economy of the process. Further the fine particles
may create either a dusty atmosphere or coagulations
clustering preventing the homogeneous deposition of
layers, thus preventing good layer consolidation.

b
Figure 7 : Powder particle shapes REM, a) precipitation,
b) Cryogenic milling

Figure 6 : DSC plot of PA 12 (Duraform) and PA 6

A variety of commercially available technical polymers

with excellent properties for SLS have been tuned by
blending or by special design of the chain length (analogy
to molecular weight ranges). Often they result in a multipeak DSC diagram. SLS can handle only one fixed
controlled consolidation temperature or several very close
peaks (typically 5-10 C difference), which means that
polymers with more than one tight melting range are not
processable with SLS. Figure 9 demonstrates the DSC
curve of a commercial pulverized blend with no real full
melting SLS processability, due to two different melting
points at 178C and 185C.
We can associate seven main SLS polymer powder
materials with different application fields. These material
families can also be attributed to a specific consolidation
mechanism as discussed in 2.
The four main thermoplastic SLS applications and the
related thermoplastic material are:
a. SLS of polymer parts: semi-crystalline polymers
(3.1.1)
b. SLS of investment casting patterns: amorphous
polymers (3.1.2)
c. SLS of metal or ceramic parts using a sacrificial
polymer
binders:
thermally
degradable
amorphous polymers (3.1.3)

The consolidation of amorphous polymer powder

occurs by laser heating above the glass transition
temperature, at which the polymer is in a much more
viscous state than semi-crystalline polymers at similar
temperature. Amorphous polymers have a randomly
ordered molecular structure. They do not have a sharp
melt point but instead soften gradually as the temperature
rises. The viscosity of these materials changes when
heated, but they seldom are as easy flowing as semicrystalline materials. The flow and sintering rate will be
less, resulting in a lower degree of consolidation, higher
porosity, less strength, but also a lower shrinkage that is
favourable in cases of SLS of patterns for producing
mould for moulding or casting (i.e. Indirect Rapid Tooling,
investment casting patterns, etc.). In several applications
post-infiltration of the pores is applied to consolidate the
part (see 4).
In conclusion for semi-crystalline polymers we have rather
full melting consolidations whereas for amorphous
polymers we rather see a partial melting binding
mechanism.
This complex thermal behaviour of polymers is amplified
in SLS processing due to several factors. The costly
pulverization either by cryogenic milling or precipitationprocess (Figure 7) limits the availability of polymer
powders. The pulverization can influence also the

-735-

process is something between partial and full melting. The

densities obtained in SLS of PA 12 are just slightly below
those of compression moulded parts (0.95-1.00 versus
1.04 g/cm3), yielding very similar mechanical properties
under compression, but somewhat lower tensile strength
and notched Izod values that are sensitive to small voids.
The melt viscosity is linearly related to the molecular
weight (MW). For good interfusion of the polymer chains,
sufficient to provide particle necking and layer to layer
adhesion, a low melt viscosity is desirable. However, low
viscosity results in high shrinkage and poor part accuracy.
Thus an optimum MW range exists but is not easily
controllable, neither at the polymer production nor during
aging in process. The thermal degradation over time when
re-using the same powder repeatedly, results in the decay
of the MFI (Mold Flow Index) hence a drop in powder
flowability and a rise in melt viscosity preventing proper
sintering with reasonable quality: the surface gets an
unsmooth orange peel texture (Figure 10b) after a
certain number of runs (Figure 10a). A drop in mechanical
properties can be observed as well. The consolidation
temperature may be raised to compensate for that, but
only in a narrow range and with limited effectiveness (see
also 3.1.8).

d.

SLS of reinforced or filled semi-crystalline

polymers for highly loaded parts (3.1.4)
SLS today also allows production of parts using:
e. Flexible elastomeric material parts (3.1.5)
f. Polymer-polymer blends (used in the racing
industry) (3.1.6)
g. Thermosetting materials (3.1.7)
Those different material categories are discussed in more
detail below.

Figure 8 : Typical particle size distribution of Duraform

PA 12 (Source FHSG St. Gallen)

Cooling curve
a
Heating curve

Figure 9 : Commercial pulverized blend with no real

SLS processability: (left) meltcurve (right)
recrystallisation curve

Orange peel
surface texture

3.1.1
Semi-crystalline polymers
Today, the production of prototypes (RP) and functional
parts (RM) by SLS is basically limited to nylon, i.e.
polyamide (PA) [7, 22, 24, 26, 84, 102, 218]. Quite some
research is going on using other (semi-)crystalline
thermoplastics: polyethylene (PE) [155, 165], PEEK [151,
152], PCL [148, 203, 214]. and PEEK are of special
interest as biocompatible polymers [151, 192, 214].
The fundamental reason why PA sinters well, while more
difficulties are experienced with other polymers is not
totally clear yet. Some semi-crystalline polymers are able
to crystallize much faster than others, as a result of their
chain structure. The rate of crystallization is minimum near
Tg and Tm, and reaches a maximum between those two
temperatures. Crystallization rate should however be kept
relatively slow (relative to the vertical build rate) in order to
avoid part distortion due to freezing shrinkage. Good
crystallization is then obtained by keeping the powder bed
at high temperature for a sufficient long time after
sintering.
To obtain fully dense parts, the melt viscosity should be
low enough to allow complete consolidation within the time
scale of the process. Pure polymers with melt viscosity in
the range of few tens to few thousands poise (e.g. nylon
and waxes) can be processed successfully and reach
near full density [11]. However, even for PA-12, the SLS
part still contains small amounts of porosity and the

b
Figure 10 : a) The rise in viscosity of re-used PA 12
material, b) resulting orange peel texture on SLS part
To achieve functionally strong prototypes, all powder bed
based processes need to work with polymers that have
molecular weights as high as possible [155]. High
molecular weight can lead to difficulty in placing and
forming the material because of the high viscosities
involved. Increasing the molecular weight of the polymer
powder can reduce shrinkage in the sintered part and thus
improve the dimensional accuracy.
PA and other semi-crystalline polymer powders for SLS
are normally supplied without additives. Some additives
may be added to favour the powder fluidity and powder
spreading, but those have no influence on viscosity and
sinterability. Atmospheric control in the SLS chamber is
very critical in terms of temperature (control of sintering
and shrinkage), humidity (powder fluidity) and oxygen
content (to avoid thermal degradation of the polymer by
oxidation resulting in de-polymerization). Typically

-736-

melt as the temperature further rises above Tg. They

mainly have the advantage that their volumetric shrinkage,
when cooling down, does not show a jump, as it does for
semi-crystalline polymers: see Figure 13. This fact
provides high accuracy with little distortion. However,
amorphous polymers show a lower level of consolidation
(higher residual porosity) and hence do not reach the
strength of their moulded equivalent. The higher degree of
porosity, low thermal shrinkage/expansion and high
accuracy makes them well suited for investment casting
patterns.

polymers like PE and PP are more prone to rapid

oxidation than aromatic backbone polymers like PET
(semi-crystalline) or PC (amorphous).
Several researchers investigated SLS of biocompatible
semi-crystalline thermoplastics like PEEK and PCL
(Poly--caprolactone) [9, 31, 148, 152, 170, 192, 214].
PCL is a biodegradable linear polyester, while PEEK is not
biodegradable. A polymer has never one specific
molecular weight, but consists of a mixture of molecules
with different chain lengths, and so, different molecular
weights. The mean molecular weight and the molecular
weight distribution are important properties of a polymer.
Typically SLS of PCL with MW of 50.000 g/mol
demonstrated good laser sinterability [214], while PCL
with a MW of 40.000 g/mol could not be laser sintered well
[203] due to big distortions caused by shrinkage. This
shrinkage is due to the lower molecular weight of the
second PCL powder, and due to the purity differences
compared to the first powder.

a
b
Figure 12 : a) PS Powder (CastForm), b) Tensile break
cross section demonstrating partial melting regime
3.1.3

Thermally degradable amorphous polymers for

SLS of metal or ceramic parts
Various SLS applications make use of a powder
combining a degradable polymer binder and a structural
material (metal or ceramic) that produces a green part in
which the structural particles are bound into a degradable
polymer matrix [77]. These green parts are further
processed in a furnace to burn out the polymer (debinding) and to consolidate the remaining polymer-free
metal or ceramic part by post-sintering, infiltration, or
HIPing: see 4. The polymers used as the sacrificial
binder in those applications are different from the
polymers described in the previous and subsequent
sections. They should allow de-binding, i.e. thermal
depolymerization. Polymers used for this purpose are
PMMA and copolymers MMA-BMA that can be de-binded
in a furnace at temperatures around 350-450C. They
should not be water soluble [11, p. 112] and should have
sufficient strength, even when heated up in the de-binding
furnace, in order to avoid that the green part would
collapse before some solid state sintering can consolidate
the metallic or ceramic particles together. The polymer
must also be fully de-bindable (i.e. depolymerised and
sublimated) and should not yield excessive contamination
of the remaining part with carbon residuals (important e.g.
for steel parts). If the strength of the polymer in the green
stage is insufficient, the green part can be consolidated by
cross-linking the binder. This can be done by impregnating
the green part with a water soluble thermosetting acrylic
emulsion and drying it in an oven at 50C, before it goes
to the de-binding furnace [11, p. 139]. Alternatively, a
cross-linker can be added into the degradable polymer

b
Figure 11 : a) PA 12 Powder, b) tensile break cross
section showing some air voids (Source FHSG-St.
Gallen)
Powder particle morphology also influences the laser
consolidation. Figure 11a shows powder (PA 12) with a
near to spherical shape whereas Figure 12a shows
irregular shaped PS powder. When no pressure is applied
during consolidation, voids and air traps remain in the
solid part. This reduces the effective cross section and the
tensile strength compared to moulded parts from the
same polymer (10-20% reduction). Figure 11b (PA 12)
and Figure 12b (PS) depict the tensile break cross section
demonstrating partial melting regime.
Comparison between SLS and moulded parts concerning
strength is discussed in 3.1.8 .
3.1.2
Amorphous polymers
Amorphous polymers with strongly temperaturedependent viscosities (or high activation energy for
viscous flow) have been readily processed using SLS [11,
14, 75, 141]. Typical examples are polycarbonate (PC)
and polystyrene (PS). Depending on the powder size and
MW, they are generally pre-heated to a temperature near
or even above the glass transition temperature Tg and will

-737-

coating of the powder [11, p. 139]. This will eliminate the

step of impregnating the green part.
When using sacrificial binders, care should be taken
because depolymerization could also occur during SLS
[11 p. 108, 82, 88]. Indeed, these polymers are
deliberately designed to depolymerise as an aid to their
thermal removal in post-SLS processing. Polymers based
on copolymers of n-butyl methacrylate (BMA) and methyl
methacrylate (MMA) have been observed to also
depolymerise during SLS processing [200, 201].

p136]. The latter typically corresponds to a 5 m polymer

coating on a 55 m 1080 carbon steel grain [200].
Figure 14 [108] demonstrates three stages in the SLS
process of Apatite-Wollastonite (A-W) glass ceramic with
5 wt% MMA-BMA binder:
a) powder mixture before processing (white particles are
A-W glass ceramic, grey particles are MMA-BMA),
b) highly porous part after SLS processing (The few
polymer connections are just enough to give the
'green' part sufficient strength to be transferred to the
post-treatment furnace)
c) 'brown' part after polymer debinding and 1 hour firing
at 1150C. During firing, A-W is partly melted. The part
still is not totally dense and may need further
densification to convert the brown part into a final one.

Figure 13 : Comparison of relative volume between

amorphous and semicrystalline polymers [11]

Figure 15 : Glass-nylon powder mixture (Source:

K.U.Leuven)

Figure 16 : SEM micrograph of HA particle distribution in

HDPE matrix [165]

Figure 17: PA-12 GF One of the most popular glass beads

reinforced HTD materials (Source FHSG St. Gallen)
3.1.4

Semi-crystalline reinforced polymer for metal,

ceramic or glass reinforced plastic parts
Today there exist several SLS powders aimed at
production of reinforced polymer parts. Applications
include parts made from glass reinforced PA [28, 30], Cu
filled PA [20], Al filled PA [1, 46], SiC-PA [59, 76], HAHDPE, i.e. hydroxyapatite reinforced high density
polyethylene [165], HA-PA [69, 166], Polysiloxane-SiC
[54]. Unlike the sacrificial polymer binders described in

c
Figure 14 : SLS of AW glass ceramic with sacrificial
binder (a) Powder mixture (b) Green part (c) Brown part
The polymer binder may be added to the structural
material in two ways: mixing [34, 123] or coating [171,
172, 199, 217]. Typical volume of binder in the powder is
5% for mixed powders [34] as well as coated ones [11,

-738-

the binder polymer causing a very short recycle ability of

2-3 times only (for PA 6-8 times depending on judgment
criteria).

3.1.3, the polymers used here should withstand thermal

degradation and should be durable.
The initial powder may be a mixture of polymer particles
and reinforcement beads. Figure 15 shows such a mixture
of spherical PA and glass particles: on the right side of the
picture, the glass particles are colored blue with Prussic
ink for better visibility. Alternatively, the single powder
particles may already be a composite consisting of a
polymer matrix (PA or PE) containing filler particles [165,
166] (see Figure 16) or a polymer coated filler particles
[20].

3.1.5
Elastomeric materials
Elastomeric polymers have a structure with long chains
and only few cross-links between them. Below the glasstransition temperature they are brittle, above they are very
elastic. When the density of cross-links enlarges, strength
and stiffness also enlarge, and ductility lowers.
A new elastomer powder material for the SLS process
was recently released [120]. Figure 20 demonstrates this
polyester based elastomer (patent pending). The most
significant properties in the thermoplastic material
selection were considered and compared with reference to
elastomeric materials as Neoprene, EPDM and natural
rubber. Figure 21 gives a comparison for the different
elastomeric materials for Shore A hardness and
elongation at break.

Figure 18 : New PA powder with a high-aspect ratio filler

(Source FGHS St.-Gallen)

b
Figure 20 : Polyester based elastomer a) Green part
after sintering at low hardness b) Infiltrated with
polyurethane (Source FHSG St. Gallen)

Shore A Hardness

Figure 17 shows the fracture surface of a part made with a

popular commercial glass filled nylon powder. One can
see that the connection between the glass beads and PA
binder was not perfect, that many glass beads have been
pulled out and that the PA was stretched during breakage,
resulting in a rough spongy surface. Figure 18 shows a
new reinforced SLS powder having elongated filler beads
(patent pending). This new powder turned out to be better
that the traditional GF-PA powder: tensile strength x 1.8;
E-modulus x 1.3; elongation x 3.3.
Aluminium filled PA 12 often shows coagulation, since
mixing the aluminium and PA powder particles isnt always
very succesfull. This causes segregation during layering
due to the differences in size and specific weight (Figure
19). This fact is even more striking in PA 12-Cu. The
inhomogeneous solid with voids creates mechanical
defects and deteriorates the tensile strength. The local
heat concentration on the filler has a negative influence on

Shore A (high)

Elongation %

100

1000

75

750

50

500

25

250

Elongation %

Shore A (low)

b
Figure 19 : a) PA 12 and 30% Al blend; b) a tensile break
cross section with defects due to inhomogeneity (Source
FHSG St. Gallen)

0
0

Material

Figure 21 : Developed elastomeric material for SLS in

relation to commonly used elastomers (Source FHSG
St. Gallen)

-739-

Shore A Hardness

blends are multiphase systems and, therefore, their

properties largely depend on their microstructure [162,
215]. Salmoria, for instance, used blends of PA and HDPE
(blend ratios of 80/20, 50/50 and 20/80 wt%) to achieve
dedicated properties. Depending on the blend ratio,
different phases and micro-structures were observed
using SEM, EDX and XRD analysis [162].
FH St.Gallen experimented with powder blends (PA12
with additions of PA11 or Polyester) mainly to enhance the
elongation at break. Recently, a company from Austin
started commercializing a mixture of PA12 and PA11 that
demonstrates two DSC melt peaks at 185C and 187C
respectively. The process is set to only melt the lowest
peak. This clearly suggests a liquid phase sintering
consolidation process.
In a US patent [40] the following is claimed:
A particle for use in selective laser sintering (SLS),
including a core (1) formed from at least one first material,
and at least partial coating (2) of the core (1) with a
second material (further components are optional), the
second material having a lower softening point than the
first material, wherein the softening point of the second
material is lower than approximately 70C.
The coating (2) generally contains a polymer, preferably a
thermoplastic polymer, e.g. a polyvinyl acetal, preferably a
polyvinyl butyral. It may consist of alloys with a low
softening point which are used e.g. in fuses. Moreover
saturated linear carboxylic acids with a chain length of 16
(e.g. heptadecanoic acid, melting point 60-63C.) or
polymers in the broadest sense may also be suitable. The
softening point of the 2nd material of approximately 70C
or below, allows laser sintering to be carried out at
significantly lower temperatures compared to particles
which have been used hitherto, and therefore also allows
a significantly lower temperature difference between
irradiated particles and standard room temperature. Tests
have shown that the lower maximum temperature
difference also improves the temperature homogeneity of
the building space as a whole.

Sintaflex not infiltrated

100
80
60

7W 9W

40

11W

15W

13W

5W

20
0
100

150

200
250
Elongation (%)

300

350

Shore A Hardness

Sintaflex infiltrated
100
80
60

5W

40

7W

9W 11W 13W 15W

20
0
100

150

200

250

300

350

Elongation (%)

Figure 22 : Hardness Shore A vs. Elongation [%] for

infiltrated and not infiltrated parts processed with
different laser powers (Source FHSG St. Gallen)
Sintaflex: E module vs. LS Laser Power
E Modulus [MPa]

15

10

not infiltrated
infiltrated

0
0

10
Laser Power [W]

15

20

3.1.7
Thermosetting materials
Thermosetting polymers can be used in different steps of
the SLS process. These materials can be used as an
infiltrant [47], because it is a relatively inexpensive path to
a fully dense, stiff, net shape, polymer matrix composite
part. In addition this is a very useful intermediate step for
fully functional materials, as critical surfaces and
tolerances may be achieved easily at this stage. An
example of infiltration with thermosetting polymers is the
production of metal-epoxy molds via SLS indirect
processing [11, p143]. In this process, SLS is used to form
green mold cavity inserts from metal powder that is coated
with fusible thermoplastic binder. In subsequent steps, the
binder is thermally removed and the metal powder is
oxidized to form a porous metal/ceramic cavity that shows
little shrinkage and generally excellent retention of
geometry, relative to the green part. The cavity is then
strengthened and sealed by infiltration and cure of an
epoxy tooling resin.
It is also possible to produce metal parts by laser sintering
a mixture of metals with thermosetting polymers [123].
When a thermosetting material is exposed by a laser
source, the thermosetting material turns into a viscous
liquid instantly. With for instance SLS of epoxy resin
mixture with iron powder, the polar groups (e.g. epoxy
group) in the molecule of the resin are activated
simultaneously. The liquid flows penetrate the pipes
made from pores and wet metal particles. As such, they
make bridges from one particle to another. The binding
effect, depicted in Figure 24, is dominated by the
interfacial characteristic between the resin and the iron.

Sintaflex: Rupture at break Rb vs. E Module

Rb [Mpa]

Rb
Rb (inf.)

4
2
0
0

4
6
8
E Modulus [MPa]

10

12

Figure 23 : (a) The elastic modulus [MPa] against laser

power for infiltrated and not infiltrated parts
(b) The tensile strength Rb [MPa] at ruptures against
elastic modulus (Source FHSG St. Gallen)
The influence of laser processing parameters on Shore A
hardness and ductility is shown by Figure 22. Clearly the
parts processed with higher laser power become more
ductile and have a higher Shore A hardness.
The influence of laser processing parameters on elastic
modulus E and the tensile strength Rb at rupture is shown
by Figure 23.
3.1.6
Polymer blends
Polymeric blends offer an alternative mean to obtain SLS
parts with specific structure and properties, permitting the
development of new applications [174]. Most polymeric

-740-

Iron surfaces commonly attach some active hydrogen

atoms because of its attraction of some molecule such as
H2O and HCl due to its high polarity. Hydrogen bonds
occur between the electronegative oxygen atoms in polar
groups in resin molecules and the electropositive active
hydrogen ones on iron surfaces. Iron particles are strongly
bonded because hydrogen bond attraction is more
intensive than that of inter-molecular action existing on the
interfaces between iron surfaces and other nonpolar
polymers. The resin viscosity is lowered at higher
temperature (i.e., laser energy) and its viscous liquid can
spread easily. Thus many more iron particles surfaces can
be attached by resin. However, degradation of resin,
induced by excessive laser energy, might occur and
reduce the bonding capability.

By the end of the day we want to have nearly the choice

as e.g. in injection moulding. The obvious way is to
compare the differences and compensate for deficits.
Figure 25 shows all the commercial available SLS
materials (in yellow) in comparison to some injection
polymer materials (in blue): the comparison is shown for
tensile strength, tensile modulus and elongation. We find
some deficits. While some SLS materials have
comparable properties to molded ones, none of them is
able to reach the highest values of tensile modulus and
strength, nor elongation. The low elongation capability can
be explained by the many short binding necks creating
high stiffness with little elongation.
A further interesting finding indicated by Zarringhalam
[218] is the boundary between the loose powder and the
solid part (see Figure 28, which shows the microstructure
of a part cross section). Under certain conditions
unconsolidated particles may remain in the solid part. This
can be overcome easily by proper energy intake settings,
correct scan strategies like cross scanning (in X, Y, in
X&Y and so on) or multi times scanning of the same
layers if required. The boundary conditions may be
partially improved by the so called out-line scanning
imposing a sharper border line between loose powder and
consolidated part.
A powder with slow recrystallization rate, as depicted by
non-overlapping or slightly overlapping endothermic and
exothermic peaks during the heating and respective
cooling phases of the DSC analysis (Figure 26), might
result in nearly fully dense parts with minimal distortion,
while highly overlapping peaks will yield bad results
(Figure 27) [212].

Figure 24 : Binding mechanism for epoxy resin to iron

particles
Injection vs. SLS Materials
Tensile modulus [MPa]

16000

Injection

1
12000

SLS

2
3
a
b

8000

4000

6
de f

5
c

0
0,0

100,0

7
9

200,0
Elongation [%]

300,0

400,0

Tensile strength [MPa]

250
200

150

Injection

100

4
c

0,0

Figure 26 : DSC plots (heating and cooling) of new

reinforced PA 12 powder containing elongated rather
than spherical beads for better strength

10

50
0

SLS

50,0

7
d e f
100,0

150,0

200,0

250,0

300,0

350,0

400,0

Elongation [%]

Figure 25 : Commercial available SLS materials (yellow) in

comparison to some injection polymer materials (in blue)
Figure 27 : DSC plots (heating and cooling) of IP60
powder showing overlap between melting and
recrystallization peaks [US patent 5,648,450]

3.1.8
Properties of molded and SLS polymers
Although great efforts have been made and some results
were achieved, the reasons for the relative few material
options are many. Some are surely of interest to this
paper about consolidation, however when dealing with
polymers other phenomena have to be considered as to
enhance the binding models.

In contrast to metals, one has to be aware about the

thermal deterioration of the powder material. The recyled
material has a limited usability as demonstrated for PA 12.
The long exposure to heat leads to chain growth, a rise in

-741-

MW and so a rise in viscosity. This causes nonconstant

consolidation conditions and a shift in the melting
temperature. The empirical melting temperature ramps up
as a function of build height and age of the powder. In the
extreme this can lead to creation of patterns on the
surface known as Orange Peel because of its texture
(see Figure 10b). This can be improved by mixing with
virgin material (about 70% virgin 30% reused).
Melt Flow Index (MFI) is flow in grammes that occurs in 10
minutes through a standard die of 2.095 0.005 mm
diameter and 8.000 0.025mm in length when a fixed
pressure is applied to the melt via a piston and a load of
total mass of 2.16 kg at a temperature of 190C (some
polymers are measured at a higher temperature, some
use different weights and some even different orifice
sizes). MFI is an assessment of average molecular mass
and is an inverse measure of the melt viscosity; in other
words, the higher a MFI, the more polymer flows under
given test conditions. Hence the MFI of a polymer is vital
to anticipating and controlling its processing. Generally,
higher MFI polymers are used in injection moulding, and
lower MFI polymers are used with blow moulding or
extrusion processes.

Figure 30 : Tensile strength and elongation of PA-GF

polymers as function of number of build in which nonrefreshed powder is used
With PA 12, process stability and repeatability in the
consolidation process can be obtained by keeping the MFI
within a constant range and never working with virgin
powder [119]. This phenomenon is amplified for the glass
filled PA 12 material, leading to a rapid decline in
mechanical properties, a clear evidence of different
consolidation conditions (Figure 30).
The aging and the resulting change in consolidation
phenomena and final component properties are very
minor with amorphous materials like PS and elastomeric
polyester based material.
To conclude on polymers, Table 2 gives an overview of
some commercial available SLS polymers with their most
important properties concerning the SLS process.

When polymer powder is reused in SLS, the MFI is

already about three times lower than the virgin powder
(Figure 29). This leads to higher viscosity, and sometimes
the quality of the product becomes unacceptable.

Un-molten
complete
particle
stuck to
edge
Un-molten
particle core
Fully
molten
particle
(no core)

Figure 28 : Boundary between loose powder and solid

part
Virgin

MFI

Recycled 60
40

PA 6

50

230

PA 12

(41)

184

9.600
40.000
80.000

PCL

-65 -60

58 60

PEEK

143

340

MW
(molecular
weight)
(g/mol)

3.2.1
Solid state sintering (SSS)
Theoretically SSS can be applied for consolidating metal
parts by SLS [204]. Its application is however limited for
two reasons:

0
1 6 11 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66
-20

Tm (Melt
temperature)
(C)

3.2 Metals
Today metals are the second most used material type in
SLS/SLM. Almost all consolidation mechanisms listed in
Figure 2 can be applied to consolidate metallic parts [164].

20

Interior
quality

Tg (Glass
transition
temperature)
(C)

Table 2 : Overview of commercial available polymers with

most important properties for SLS

QA
MFI
Linear (MFI)

80

Material

Build (run)

Figure 29 : Melt flow index of powder as a function of

number of builds in which powder is used (Source
FHSG St. Gallen)

-742-

The process is difficult to control: the process transits

between no consolidation (at lower energy levels) and
partial/full melting (at higher energy levels) within a
very narrow process window (range), making it difficult
to adjust the process parameters for real SSS.

SSS requires a long interaction time between laser

beam and powder particles. This calls for slow
scanning velocities and makes the process not

first group of technologies is characterized by a clear

distinction between the binder and structural materials.
A. Different binder and structural materials
Technologies in this category can be further divided into
three groups according to the type of powder grains that
are used (Figure 2).
A1. Separate particles
These technologies use different binder and structural
particles [4]. The structural material (in this case, a metal,
alternatively a ceramic as discussed below) should
generally have a higher melting point than the (metallic)
binder material (Use of polymer binders has been
discussed in 3.1). The binder particles are usually
smaller than the structural ones, in order to facilitate their
preferential melting. However, preferential binder melting
may be counteracted by the higher reflectivity or lower
laser absorption of the metallic binder material (typically
Cu or Co) as compared to the structural material (metal or
ceramic). In some cases, this might even lead to a reverse
melting process, in which the structural particles will melt
prior to the binder grains [105, 204].
The combination of small binder particles and larger
structural particles has the additional benefit of better
packing with small pores, favoring fast spreading of the
molten binder by capillary forces and fast rearrangement
of the particles.
Generally a green part is produced which is still porous
and brittle. Therefore, a post treatment consisting of a
furnace post-sintering, Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) or an
infiltration with a low melting point material (metal,
alternatively epoxy or other) is usually necessary: see 4.
To obtain sufficient mechanical properties, most
commonly infiltration is applied because of its
effectiveness and relative ease.

economically viable. Tests performed at K.U.Leuven

with steel powders indicated that scanning speed in
solid state SLS needs to be limited [204], where those
scanning speed may reach about 1500 mm/s in SLM
and about 10000 mm/s in liquid phase SLS with
Laserform [103].

Figure 31 : LPS of Stainless Steel-Cu powder mixture

(a: nonmolten steel particle, b: molten Cu, c: porosity)]

100Pm

Figure 32 : LPS of WC-Co powder mixture; top: before

infiltration (a: nonmolten WC particle, b: molten Co, c:
porosity); bottom: after infiltration with copper [112]
Early SSS laser sintering tests with steel were performed
by Van der Schueren [95, 204]. Gusarov has applied and
modelled laser SSS of Ti powder [66, 67]. The laser
interaction time was of the order of magnitude of 5
seconds, as compared to 0.1- 0.3 ms with other binding
mechanisms. Tolochko sintered Ti teeth with a static
defocused Nd:YAG laser beam [194]. The Ti parts
obtained were dense in the core, i.e. in the laser spot
(high energy density yielding SLM), but had a porous shell
(lower energy yielding SSS). No post-infiltration was aplied
to remove this porosity, as it favoured osteo-integration of
bone into the Ti tooth.
Lanzetta has experimented with gold powders [111]. He
succeeded to thermally sinter pure Au spherical powder
ranging between 5 and 40 m in size and then to infiltrate
the obtained skeleton with binary gold eutectics based on
silicon, germanium and tin, with a melting point as low as
278 C. The initial thermal sintering is not yet laser-based,
but this is the logical next step. This laser sintering could
be done by solid state sintering or by liquid phase
sintering (partial melting) as described further on (see
3.2.2, subsection B1).

a) WC and Co powder mixture

b) mech. alloyed WC-Co powder

c) sintered powder mixture

d) sintered mech. alloyed WC-Co powder

Figure 33 : WC-Co powder mixture and sintered parts

(source: University of Leuven)
Many different material combinations have been tested in
the past. At the University of Leuven, metal-metal
composites were tested as well as metal-ceramic
composites [64, 100, 101, 109, 112]. Some examples of
metal-metal composites are Fe-Cu and Stainless SteelCu. As for the metal-ceramics combinations (see also
3.3), WC-Cu, WC-Co, WC-CuFeCo, TiC-Ni/Co/Mo, ZrB2Cu and TiB2-Ni were tested. Figure 31 and Figure 32
show cross sections of Stainless Steel-Cu and WC-Co
green parts (see also Figure 33 a and c).
A2. Composite particles
Composite powder particles contain both the binder and
the structural material within each individual powder grain.
The powder may be obtained by mechanically alloying a
mixture of two different powders, causing powder particles
to be repeatedly milled, fractured and welded together.

3.2.2
Liquid phase sintering and partial melting
This category unites many different kinds of technologies.
Most of these techniques combine a structural material
remaining solid throughout the process and a binder
material being liquefied. In some cases, however, the solid
and the liquid phases result from the same material. The

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material areas. Therefore Partial Melting is a better name

for these technologies than Liquid Phase Sintering.
B1. Single phase, partially molten
When the heat supplied is insufficient to completely melt
powder particles, only a shell or small particles will melt.
This way the molten material acts as a binder between the
nonmolten particle cores [184, 195].
The partial melting phenomenon was modeled by
Karapatis [51, 52, 53, 82]. Using a simple thermal model,
skin and core temperatures of the powder particles were
calculated. This way the minimal pulse energy to fully melt
the particle can be calculated. Below this value, the core
temperature never exceeds the melting temperature and
only partial melting is obtained.
B2. Fusing a powder mixture
Powders consisting of multiple kinds of powder particles
can be classified in this group when they are only partially
molten [64, 220]. For example at the University of Leuven
experiments were done with a Fe-Fe3P-Ni-Cu powder
mixture, aiming at the production of full density parts [93].
The addition of a melting point lowering additive like Fe3P
is favorable in making the process more energy efficient.
For instance, alloying pure Fe with a small amount of P
lowers the melting point of pure Fe (1538C) to the
eutectic temperature of the Fe-P system (1048C, see
Figure 38). Moreover, the dissolution of P in Fe also has
the benefit of a lower surface tension of the melt, resulting
in a better wetting behavior. Ni is added for its marked
strengthening effect. A micrograph of the structure
obtained after partial melting of this powder is given in
Figure 37. A closer look at the microstructure reveals that
not all the powder particles are molten. The final part
consists of a low melting point P-rich phase (no. 3), a high
melting point phase with no significant amount of P (no.
2), some remaining porosities (no. 4) and some remaining
unmolten Fe powder particles (no. 1). Therefore, the
process cannot be called full melting and the name
partial melting is preferred. Notice that, even though no
full melting occurs, almost full density is achieved.

Figure 33 a shows an initial powder mixture of WC and Co

particles. Mechanical alloying results in WC-Co powder
particles with a micro grain composite structure in which
the two different phases (WC and Co) can still be
identified (see Figure 33 b). Such composite particles yield
a higher SLS green density and a better surface
roughness than a mixture of separate WC and Co
powders (compare Figure 33 c and d) [112]. Figure 34
shows an example of a WC-Co injection-moulding insert.

Figure 34 : Bronze infiltrated WC-Co injection moulding

insert (source: University of Leuven)
A3. Coated grains
A third possibility to combine a binder and a structural
material is to coat the structural material with the binder
phase. This ensures that the laser radiation hitting the
powder particles is preferentially absorbed by the binder
material that is to be melted. Moreover a more effective
bonding of the structural particles is realized since the
binder material already surrounds all structural particles.
Coated powders exist both with metal and polymer binder
coatings.
The University of Leuven experimented with Cu coated
steel powder which turned out to be successful despite the
fact that the powder coating process was hard to control
[204].
Figure 35 shows a cross section of an SLS part made
from commercially available polymer coated stainless
steel powder (LaserForm), after polymer debinding and
infiltration with bronze.

Figure 35 : Bronze infiltrated Laserform ST 100 part

At the University of Queensland, an aluminium LPS
process has been developed in collaboration with 3D
Systems [171, 172, 173]. Since the strong oxide layer on
the grains prohibits direct sintering of Al powder, an
indirect procedure was developed. Nylon coated Al
particles are fused together using the LPS mechanism.
Next, the nylon binder is de-binded in a furnace with N2
atmosphere. A small amount of magnesium added to the
powder mixture makes it possible to form aluminium
nitride instead of aluminium oxide when heating up to 540
C. The aluminium nitride acts as a rigid skeleton, which is
necessary during the infiltration phase. The infiltrant being
used is a ternary eutectic aluminium alloy (Al-13.8Si4.7Mg), having a lower melting point than the basic
aluminum alloy. Relative part densities up to 95 % were
obtained. Figure 36 shows the different processing steps.
B. No distinct binder and structural material
Technologies in this group do not exhibit a clear
distinction between binder and structural phases (even in
cases where different powders are mixed). Rather than
the distinction between binder and structural material,
there is a distinction between molten and nonmolten

50 Pm

20 Pm

50 Pm

Figure 36 : Steps in Aluminium SLS: a) green part

(nylon binder in black, not visible) b) aluminium nitride
skeleton surrounding the aluminium grains, c) infiltrated
part

Figure 37 : Micrograph of multiphase steel powder: 1)

unmolten Fe particle, 2) high melting P-poor phase, 3)
low melting P-rich phase, 4) pores [93]

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are:
x

Increased oxygen content leads to an enlarged melt

pool size due to exothermal oxidation of Fe. This
deteriorates the surface quality.

Adding carbon (steel powder 99.1% Fe, 0.1% O, 0.8%

C versus 99.9% Fe, 0.1% O) induces spherical pores,
caused by entrapment of CO or CO2 gas bubbles. A
reduction of the oxygen content in the SLM part is
observed, together with a depletion of carbon. Carbon
ameliorates the surface roughness of single layers,
while worsening it on 3D parts.

Figure 38 : Phase diagrams of Fe-P and Cu-P showing

the temperature lowering effect of the added P
EOS Direct Metal Laser Sintering process (DMLS) also
belongs to this category [45]. Figure 39 and Figure 40
show the difference in porosity obtained with 50 m and
20 m DMLS powders. In both cases, shot peening
enhances surface quality and the density of the top layer.
Different parameter sets are used for the parts skin and
core in order to obtain a rigid and hard shell and at the
same time a higher building speed (by fast scanning of the
core).

200 Pm

100 Pm

Figure 39 : DMLS Direct-Metal 50V-2 grain size 50 m,

porosity 10-15%: a and c before shot-penning, b and d
after shot peening (a and b: cross section, c and d: top
view) (Source EOS [46])

3.2.3
Full melting
Since a couple of years, there is a big move in the
processing of metal powders from laser sintering or partial
melting towards full melting (SLM) [25, 27, 94, 97, 99,
146, 147, 156, 204] , The major benefits and drawbacks of
SLM are given in Table 3.
The binding mechanism invoked in full melting is largely
driven by the fluid behaviour of the melt which is related
to:
x Surface tension (a/o Raleigh instabilities)
x Viscosity
x Wetting
x Thermocapillary effects (a/o Marangoni convection)
x Evaporation
x Oxidation
Changes of viscosity across the melt pool, due to changes
of viscosity between the liquidus and solidus temperature,
may largely influence the shape of the tracks and the
resulting smoothness and density of the parts obtained
[158, 163].
K.U.Leuven did an extensive study on the effect of
alloying elements on binding and melt pool stability in SLM
of ferro materials [158, 163]. Some major conclusions

1 mm

Figure 40 : DMLS Direct-Steel 20V-2 grain size 20 m,

porosity ~ 5%, in the ZX plane: left before and right after
shot-penning, cross section (Source IPT)
x

De-oxidizers like Si and Ti do not improve the process.

On the contrary, they lead to a larger melt pool and
higher tendency to balling, resulting in bad surface
quality. They reduce the amount of spherical pores,
but increase the amount of irregular pores.

Cu does not have a large effect on the melt pool

behavior, however when added in pure form, it
reduces the absorption of laser powder due to its high
reflectivity.
The University of Liverpool studied the effect of small
additions of boron, in the form of iron boride, to steel [23].

Full Melting

Benefits

Drawbacks

Material choice

No distinct binder and melt phases; hence,

the process can produce single material
parts (e.g. Steel, Ti or Al alloys), rather than
producing a composite green parts which
might not be desired

Not suited for well

materials (e.g. WC-Co)

Elimination of time consuming and costly

furnace post-processes for debinding (in
case of polymer binder phase), infiltration or
post-sintering

The laser powder processing needs higher

energy level: i.e. high laser power, good beam
quality (more expensive laser) and smaller scan
velocities (longer build times)

Better suited to produce full dense parts

(even over 99.9%) in a direct way, without
post infiltration, sintering or HIPing

SLM suffers more from melt pool instabilities

(low quality of down facing surfaces, higher
upper surface roughness, risk of internal pores)
and higher residual stresses (common need to
build and anchor part on solid base plate, risk of
delamination, distortion when removing base
plate).

Production
cost)

Part quality

steps

(time,

Table 3 : Benefits and drawbacks of SLM

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controlled

composite

The Fraunhofer Institute of Production Technology (IPT)

worked with different compacted, respective ground, WCCo powder particles: see Figure 42. A higher mean
density could be achieved when applying the spherical
particles of the compacted WC-Co powder, in comparison
with the irregular particles of the ground WC-Co powder.
The metallographical analysis of laser sintered WC-Co
structures showed a structure which is comparable with
conventionally sintered hard metal. The distribution of the
WC particles is even and dispersed within the cobalt
matrix (Figure 43). This effect could be investigated
because of a rearranging of the WC particles within the
fluid cobalt phase. The viscosity of the liquid cobalt phase
and the wetting behavior of the WC particles with the
cobalt binder are sufficient for forming an almost dense
structure. Inhomogeneities, caused by the layered
structure, were not identified. The maximally achieved
relative SLS (green) density when applying WC-Co 75-25
powder was 78.3% and 68% in case of WC-Co 88-12. The
energy input per unit area is particularly important in terms
of localized material densification (localized liquid phase
sintering). In case of a constant energy input per unit area,
a higher relative density was achieved by a fast scan
velocity (vS) and an increased laser power (PL) in
comparison with a slow scan velocity and a low laser
power. Identical energy input per unit area resulted in an
10% increase of the relative density by the selection of a
high vS-PL combination. Figure 44 shows parts made of
WC-Co 88-12.
Other researchers applied a sacrificial polymer binder
(MMA-BMA) to consolidate ceramic particles (e.g. SiC)
into a green part [11, p. 111]. This green part has then to
be polymer debinded in a furnace, after which a further
furnace consolidation might be applied (mostly infiltration
with copper or bronze).
An example of production of cermets by chemical
induced consolidation is reported in 3.4.7, where Al2O3
cermet is produced by making CuO react with Al. Free Cu
is added to control the exothermal reaction [80].

The boron is aimed to replace interstitial carbon in steel,

which does have a negative effect on SLM processibility.
The addition of boron did not have such deleterious effect
on processibility and to some extend increased the part
density. Addition of Ti to the Fe-FeB powder confirmed the
negative effect of Ti on processibility, even though it
improved the bonding of the samples to the base plate
and reduced the extreme hardness.
Notice that the results reported are not always consistent
and may differ in view of the machine or laser used, the
layer or part height, etc. Decades of research might still be
needed
to
develop
appropriate
metallurgical
understanding and tuned ferro materials for SLM, in a
similar way as done in the past for hot or cold working
steels, free-machining steels, high speed steels, etc. It is
not surprising that development and commercial release
of ferro powders for SLM happens at a very low rate, and
that their number to date is so limited (mainly Fe-based
powders and stainless steel; very few tool steels), not
withstanding the large research effort deployed [35, 73,
145].
The move from SLS to SLM represents a major advance
in rapid manufacturing of non-ferrous metal parts, which
to date could not be well processed using SLS solid state
sintering, liquid phase sintering or sacrificial polymer
binders [109, 138]. SLM of powders from Ti or CoCr alloys
has entered industrial practice, mainly in the field of
medical applications: e.g. for dental crowns, copings and
frameworks [2, 15, 85, 104, 113, 188]. Those powders can
be melted more easily to almost full density than ferro
powders (Figure 41). This figure demonstrates that the
density of Ti6Al4V is highly repeatable and controllable
through the processing parameters up to densities of
99.98% [205]. SLM of Al might be the next material
reaching industrial application [43, 173]. The University of
Liverpool tested SLM of Cu [149], while the work of
Lanzetta [111] might be a first step towards SLM of gold.
3.2.4
Chemically induced consolidation
Metals and hardmetals (cermets) can also be
consolidated chemically. In situ Cu-based composites can
be synthesized by reaction between elemental Ti and C
powders in Cu. Using a CO2 laser, Cu can be melted with
the help of Ti and the reaction heat of the TiC formation
[125].
The example given above shows a possible way to apply
chemical bonding in SLS of Al powder. In this case,
reaction of Al with the N2 atmosphere of the SLS chamber
can be used to create an AlN binder phase that binds the
Al particles together (Figure 36b). To date however, this
chemical induced binding mechanism has only been
invoked during furnace post sintering [176].
3.3 Cermets and hardmetals
Cermets and hardmetals, being composites in which
ceramic particles are embedded in a metal matrix (binder),
can be readily processed by liquid phase SLS using a
mixture of ceramics particles that remain solid throughout
the process and metal particles that are melted by the
laser [36, 39, 206, 210]. In most of the cases, the sintered
part will not reach full density and a post-infiltration of the
porous green part will be needed (see Figure 32) [132].
Many researchers investigated liquid phase SLS of
common WC-Co cemented carbide (hardmetals) using
either a mixture of WC and Co powder particles or
composite WC-Co powder particles [112, 132]. Some
examples and details, originating from K.U.Leuven, have
been given under 3.2 Metals, subsection A (see Figure
32 to Figure 34). Researchers also investigated cermets
like WC-Cu, WC-CuFeCo, TiC-Ni/Co/Mo, ZrB2-Cu and
TiB2-Ni. More examples are given in 3.4 ceramics.

Figure 41 : Density of SLM processed titanium with

different scan spacing and scan speed
3.4
Ceramics
Besides polymers and metals, ceramics is another
important group of materials with many applications in the
field of mechanical engineering. Therefore the
qualification of ceramics for rapid manufacturing
technologies is a prior objective of worldwide research
activities. This is an ambitious challenge, because the
specific properties of most ceramics conflict with

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mechanisms are chemical induced binding, partial melting

and full melting. Amongst non-oxide ceramics are:

technological material requirements for SLS/SLM (e.g. low

thermal conductivity, high melting point etc.).
By now, technologies of laser and powder bed based layer
manufacturing using ceramics are not so well-investigated
as compared to the technologies using polymers or
metals. However there are some research activities which
differ in various technological aspects. A differentiation
can be made by the type of material, the type of
consolidation and the necessity of post-processing of the
considered technology.
3.4.1
Types of Technical Ceramics
Ceramic materials are inorganic and non-metallic.
Technical ceramics means ceramic products made for
technical applications. Usually they are shaped from the
"green body" at room temperature and acquire their typical
properties during a long sintering process at high
temperatures. In laser and powder bed based layered
manufacturing of ceramics the very short time of heat
impact is the most critical point. The different sintering
mechanisms (described in 2) are more or less timedependent. In accordance with their chemical composition
the technical ceramic materials can be divided into three
main groups:
x

silicate ceramics

oxide ceramics

technical porcelain

steatite

cordierite

aluminium oxide

magnesium oxide

zirconium oxide

aluminium titanate

Nitride

Figure 43 : Distribution of WC particles in Cobalt matrix

x
mullite-ceramic
Oxide ceramics consist of at least 90% of single phase
and single component metal oxides. These materials are
glass-phase low or glass-phase free. Synthetic raw
materials with a high level of purity lead to an even
structure with very good properties at a very high sintering
temperature.
Various raw materials from mining areas in the whole
world form the basis for the production of high-quality
oxides and mixed oxides. The predominating types of
powder consolidation mechanism are solid state sintering,
partial melting and full melting. Following materials belong
to the group of the oxide ceramics materials:
x

Carbide

Figure 42 : WC-Co powder particle

x
non-oxide ceramics
Silicate ceramics are multi-phase materials; the
fundamental ingredients are clay, kaolin, as well as
feldspar and soapstone as silicate carrier. Further
ingredients such as alumina and zirconium silicate
(ZrSiO4) are added to achieve specific properties. These
materials, obtained from natural raw materials, combine
the basic electrical, mechanical and thermal properties of
technical ceramics. The predominating types of powder
consolidation mechanisms are liquid phase sintering,
partial melting and full melting. Amongst the materials of
silicate ceramics are:
x

Figure 44 : Parts made of WC-Co 88-12.

Selective laser consolidation of ceramic powders has
already been investigated for various materials and
various applications: e.g. micro SLS of SiC powder [154,
187], sintering of transparent Ta2O5 dielectric ceramics
[78, 79], production of SiO2 investment casting shells [88],
production of biocompatible medical implants [50, 115,
160, 202, 213], SLS of bismuth titanate ceramics [131],
SLS of radiation detectors using bismuth titanate
(Bi4Ti3O12) ferroelectric ceramics [130] and bismuth
germanate ceramics (Bi4Ge3O12) [129] etc. Other
examples are given below.
3.4.2
SLS of ceramics using polymer binder
One way to powder consolidation is the use of a sacrificial
polymer binder [8, 71, 72, 140]. The used powder material
consists of a ceramic and polymer powder mixture or of
polymer coated ceramic particles. The polymer fraction of
the material melts within a short time and at low
temperatures and binds the ceramic particles in a polymer
matrix. The mechanical properties of such ceramic parts
are not sufficient, so that in most cases a postconsolidation process combined with a debinding, e.g.
furnace treatment, is necessary.

x
piezo ceramic
Non-oxide ceramics are material compounds of silicon
and aluminium with nitrogen or carbon. In general nonoxide ceramics demonstrate a high share of covalency
bonding which provides them very good mechanical
properties, even when being used at high temperatures.
The predominating types of powder consolidation

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The University of Liverpool has developed the SLS of

SiC/Polyamide Composites [76]. In this process, the
powder is a mixture of SiC and PA particles. Unlike the
majority of the previous research in this area, the polymer
remains an integral part of the final product rather than
being removed in downstream processes. The evaluation
of the mechanical properties of the sintered composite
parts is therefore an integral part of the research. The
materials used were FEPA (Federation of the European
Producers of Abrasives) standard silicon carbide grits
individually blended with Duraform Polyamide which is
based on nylon 12. SEM micrographs of the fracture
surface of SLS parts are shown in Figure 45.

separately. An increase in laser power makes the sample

denser. The introduction of more energy into the powder
leads to an increased liquid phase, which seals off the
porous structures of the layer below. The surface is,
however, significantly rougher due to the melted particles
joining together into large drops (balling see 2.3). This
can lead to the wiper ripping off a previously sintered layer
as it tries to wipe on the next layer. An increase in scan
velocity leads to the opposite effect: a shorter exposure
time means that less energy is introduced into the powder.
This reduces the amount of material in the liquid phase,
thus lowering component density but improving surface
quality. Small scan-line spacings (high overlap and
energy) also result in balling, while scan spacings greater
than the focal diameter result in very fragile parts. The
maximum density of the solid and manageable
components produced in a stable laser sintering process
was approximately 50 % of the theoretical density. The
results of further tests with silicon dioxide (SiO2) also
proved positive and allowed to produce investment casting
cores with good strength, allowing the liquid wax to be
injected around the laser sintered cores as is common in
conventional core production [88].

Figure 45 : SEM micrographs of the fracture surface of

SLS parts build at 8 Watts laser power [76]
Other polymer coated ceramic powders are the sand
powders developed by DTM-3D Systems (SandForm) as
well as by EOS GmbH (Direct Croning Process) and that
have found industrial application for some decades now
[21, 183, 193]. The powders offered are standard Si or Zr
sands, coated with a small phenolic layer, responsible for
fusing the sand grains together. These powders are used
to produce moulds and cores for metal casting.
Stabilized zirconia powder in mixture with a 80:20 PMMABMA copolymer binder was used at the University of
Texas in Austin to produce shells for titanium casting by
SLS, because of its low reactivity and its thermal shock
resistance. A human femur head was reproduced starting
from laser-scanned data, out of Ti-6Al-4V to demonstrate
the possibility of the technology [71].

3.4.4
SLS of ceramics slurries
The powder based process can be substituted by a
ceramic slurry based process to improve the green density
of laser sintering parts. The ceramic slurry allows the use
of smaller ceramic particles which leads to a higher green
density in every single layer.
At Fraunhofer IPT, the SLS of ceramic slurries was
developed by Klocke [86]. Compared to former
investigations on ceramic laser sintering, where
manufacturing
of
powder-based
sintering
was
investigated, the aim of his work is to provide a knowledge
base for layer manufacturing of ceramic suspensions by
laser energy. By the use of ceramic slurry a higher green
body density in the dried stage is available, compared to
powder-based laser sintering. Thus, a higher density of
the final part is suggested.
Figure 47 shows the process steps in suspension laser
sintering. Besides the three process steps of
(conventional) powder-based laser sintering, coating,
exposing and platform lowering, the suspension laser
sintering process has one additional step, drying. The
re-coating is equivalent to the spraying of a ceramic
suspension layer. Before exposing the layer, the slurry
must be dried completely.
The laser sintering of ceramic suspensions is subject to
several effects which define the quality of laser sintered
parts. Depending on the cause of appearance they can be
clustered to material-, process- and machine-effects. The
result is evaluated by both the part quality and the process
stability.
Modelling of Suspension Laser Sintering
The following model of the suspension laser sintering
process helps to describe and to illustrate the
mathematical theories of single and overlapping process
parts. Sun divided the conventional powder-based laser
sintering into three model parts: the optical, the thermal
and the sinter model [190, 191]. Below a new drying
model, which is essential for the suspension laser
sintering, is described.
The drying model is based on the results of an analysis of
the system. Subsequently the physical phenomena are
described regarding the boundary conditions and
expressed by mathematical equations. The wetting
behaviour is an important part of the drying model. Solid
parts tend to accumulate other matters. The accumulation
of gaseous molecules to solid or liquid surfaces is called
adsorption. The system solid-liquid is called wetting. The

3.4.3
Liquid phase SLS of ceramics
If multi-phase ceramics are used for SLS, the dominating
powder consolidation mechanism is the liquid phase
sintering. It always occurs if one phase of the material is
already molten while the others are still solid. A great
advantage of the liquid phase sintering is that the molten
phase can bind the solid phase in a matrix structure within
a short time [117, 124]. Unlike solid state sintering where
the diffusion process takes a long time, the SLS process
can run faster.
The Fraunhofer IPT began its investigations into ceramic
laser sintering in 1997 using laser sinter equipment with
maximum 100 W laser power (CO2 laser) [88]. Initial tests
performed on different ceramics such as zirconium silicate
or aluminium silicate showed that the zirconium silicate
was more suitable. Fundamental experiments were
performed using ground powders of differing fineness and
mixtures of standard grindings. The results showed that
higher percentages of dust led to a superior surface
quality and to higher sinter rates while all other parameter
combinations remained constant. This powder was not,
however, suitable for use in an automated process, as it
could not be layered evenly. This, in turn, was due to the
powder heavily agglomerating and sticking to the wiper.
The problem was solved by fractioning off the dust from
the powder. Alternatively, one can use spray granulate:
the almost spherical particles make automated spreading
possible, even with small sizes. Grains of less than 50 m
are currently in use. The effect of each process parameter
on laser sintering is determined by varying each one

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well as the moisture content x are important effects of the

drying process. They were calculated by the following
equations.

dimension of the wetting depends on the combination of

materials [161]: see also 2.3. Different cases of wetting
which are possible for suspension laser sintering are
illustrated in Figure 46.

mW
pD
x
(4)
(5)
mL
p DS
In these equations pD is the partial pressure of the water
vapor, pDS is the saturation vapor pressure, mw is the
mass of water and mL is the mass of dry air. The humidity
absorption of the air increases with rising temperature. If
the water content x is smaller than the saturation water
content xS, the desired drying can proceed. This effect can
be amplified by a continuous supply of dry air.
Another important part of the drying model is the self
adjustment of particles during the drying process. An ideal
packing density can be accepted [92]. Figure 48 shows
the self orientation of particles by capillary forces.
F is the lateral capillary force and Fd the hydrodynamic
force which drives the particles in the direction of thinner
areas. Fd is caused by the hydrodynamic flow Jw which
compensates the vaporization of the liquid. The accepted
ideal packing density supports the thesis that the use of a
ceramic suspension instead of a ceramic powder reaches
to a higher density of the green body before laser
sintering.

UL

The contact angle 4 describes the wetting behavior. If the

contact angle 4 > 90, the system is called not wetting. A
wetting system has a contact angle 4 < 90. The best
wetting behavior, which is desired for suspension laser
sintering, exists for 4 = 0. Jxx is the surface energy or the
boundary energy of the different materials. The following
equation applies to a state of minimized energy [161].

cos 4

J sv  J sl
J lv

(2)

A dried layer consists of single particles. At the interface

of two particles exists an other boundary energy Jss. This
leads to a three-phase interface at the end of the solidsolid interface. Figure 46 d and e show this case. The
following equation represents the boundary energy of the
particles.
)
J ss 2 J sl cos
(3)
2

Vaporization
F

Fd

JW

Figure 48 : Self orientation of particles by capillary force

Laser Sintering of Zirconia (ZrO2)
Investigations were made with a selection of different
oxide ceramics suspensions. In this paper the results of
the laser sintering of zirconia are discussed as an
example. It is a suspension of yttriastabilized zirconia
and water. The slurry is made of spray granulates (TZ3YS-E) by Tosoh Corporation, Tokyo, Japan. This
material has an addition of 0.25 % alumina. This leads to
a sintering of the material at a lower temperature. Figure
49 shows the sintering temperatures of two different
zirconia materials [198]. The E-Type needs a sinter
temperature that is about 100 C lower than the pure
material. 3YS-E starts sintering at 1350 C and 3YS at
1450 C. The parameters used in this investigation are
shown in the table in Figure 49. One way of sintering
zirconia is to use a low scan velocity combined with a low
laser power.
The influence of laser power and scan velocity on the
surface roughness can be seen in Figure 50. The
roughness decreases with decreasing laser power and
increasing scan velocity. However the strength of the parts
decreases in the same way: the parts in the lower right
side were not built-up completely. A high roughness leads
to contacts with the wiping system during the process, so
that the parts in the upper left were not built-up

Figure 47 : Process steps of suspension laser sintering

The intended wetting behavior is set up by variation of Jsl.
The use of adequate suspension additives results in a
reduced value of Jsl, which is necessary since the value of
Jss is low for similar particles in the dried layer. This leads
to an acute angle of ). Another important element of the
drying model is the drying or evaporation process. The
drying process consists of thermal separation of a liquid
phase out of a powder material [57].
A green part can only be laser sintered, if the residual
water content is less than 3 wt-% [57]. Otherwise the part
could be damaged by abrupt vaporization of the liquid
phase during laser exposure. In the suspension laser
sintering process air is used as drying agent. This means
that the liquid phase of the suspension must exhaust to
ambient air during the drying process. This is only
possible with unsaturated air. Therefore the humidity UL as

Figure 46 : Wetting behavior of the solid-liquid system and interfacial equilibriums of a solid body with two grains

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2
density was estimated between 400 and 1800 J/cm . The
sintered samples had a pore size of 40-70 m. After laser
sintering, the presence of alpha-tricalcium phosphate and
amorphous calcium phosphate was detected [160].

completely, too.
The other three parts which lay on the diagonal from the
lower left to the upper right corner were built-up
completely in 25 layers. The lower pictures in Figure 50
show the green (left) and solidified (right + enlargements
at the bottom) surface of the part from the upper right
corner (11W, 200 mm/s). At the right magnification the
grain boundaries are visible. The polycrystalline structure
could be generated by a solid phase sintering process.
Cracks can be seen in the picture in the lower right corner.
They are caused by contraction during the cooling phase.
Figure 51 shows the density and the open porosity of
samples from a test series. The tests are made with a
layer thickness of s = 0.1 mm. The hatch space is
hS = 0.01 mm and the laser power is PL = 13.0 W. The
scan velocity varied from 50 mm/s up to 150 mm/s.
Density generally decreases with increasing the scan
velocity. No trend in open porosity is visible. This can be
explained by a changing ratio of open and closed porosity.

50 mm/s

100 mm/s

200 mm/s

11.0 W

9.0 W

6.8 W

10 mm

6.1 g/cm3, Density

TZ-3Y-E
6.0
5.9
TZ-3Y

5.8
TZ-3YS-E

TZ-3YS

5.7

2
m

200
m

5.6
5.5
1200

1300

1400

1500C

5 m

20 m

Figure 50 : Green and laser sintered surface of TZ-3YS-E

(PL = 11.0 W, vS = 200 mm/s)
4.8 g/cm 3

32.0 %. Open porosity POpen

4.7

30.0

4.6
4.5
4.4

Figure 49 : Sintering temperatures of different zirconias

[198] and an overview of process parameters

4.3

28.0
26.0
24.0

vs =
vs =
vs =
vs =

50 mm/s
80 mm/s
120 mm/s
150 mm/s

22.0
20.0

Figure 51 : Density and open porosity of TZ-3YS-E

Other investigations in the field of SLS of ceramic slurries

were made at TU Clausthal, Germany [32, 33]. They
developed the layer-wise slurry deposition (LSD) which
can be used to fabricate hydroxyapatite (HAP) bone
implants. HAP suspensions with a maximum solids
loading of 66 wt% were prepared, and the compositional
and structural changes during laser treatment were
studied. The optimized slurries have a slight shear
thickening behavior and a low viscosity at pH 11.5. The
rheological properties of the HAP slurries play an
important role in facilitating the layering operation. The
most
important
process
parameters
affecting
microstructure and composition were laser power and
laser beam speed. The penetration depth of the laser
increased with increasing laser power and decreasing
beam speed. In the LSD process, the largest layer
thickness is limited by the penetration depth. When the
laser beam speed was varied in the range of 10-60 mm/s
and the laser power in the range of 18-24 W respectively,
the maximum layer thickness was 100 micron. The energy

Further, TU Clausthal uses the LSD process to present a

SFF technique for ceramics in the aluminasilica system
by layering binder-free, high-loaded ceramic slurries,
followed by selective laser sintering. The low melting silica
phase and the reaction sintering between silica and
alumina favor the rapid prototyping of pure ceramic parts.
On the basis of electroacoustic and viscosity
measurements, stable slurries from Al2O3/SiO2 powder
mixtures and water with a high fluidity have been prepared
for the layer deposition with a doctor blade like in tape
casting. Layers with a thickness of about 100 m were
processed. It was found in laser parameter studies that
ceramic parts can only be obtained using special alumina
contents and laser parameters. But the biphasic approach
may allow greater flexibility in the processing regime than
is afforded by the use of just one material. The
microstructure of these parts depends mainly on the
temperature gradient induced by the laser absorption and
thermal conduction. The wet shaping facilitates lasersintered parts with a relatively high density, which could be

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this purpose a high temperature processing chamber will

be designed and built up at Fraunhofer ILT.

increased by a thermal post-treatment [56]. The scheme

of the LSD process is shown in Figure 52.
3.4.5
Solid state SLS of ceramics
Phenix Systems (France) commercializes an SLS-like
system that realizes SSS using a high temperature
process chamber reaching up to 800qC [13]. The
compacted powder, which is pre-heated close to the SSS
temperature, is sintered due to the extra energy
contribution of a Nd:YAG laser source. This way, ceramic
materials can be processed as well as metal powders. To
obtain the desired characteristics, a post sintering
operation is necessary. Figure 53 shows some ceramic
parts.

3.4.6
SLM of ceramics
Fraunhofer ILT is currently developing a new approach in
the field of SLM of ceramics [213]. It is based on direct
and complete melting of a ceramic powder material by
means of a laser beam. The powder material used
consists of zirconia with small additions of other oxide
ceramic materials. It contains neither any glass nor any
metallic component.

b
Figure 54 : Cross section of conventional manufactured
ceramic specimen showing very high density (a) and
cross section through a SLM manufactured ceramic
specimen showing cracks (b) [213] (images: optical
microscope).

Figure 52 : LSD main process [56]

Figure 53 : Some ceramic parts by Phenix Systems [13]

The cross section in Figure 54 demonstrates that there is
almost no porosity in the part. The high density results
from the complete melting of the powder material and is
achieved without any post-processing. However, all
manufactured parts contain a large number of microcracks as shown in Figure 54b. The cracking occurs
during the build process and is caused by thermal
stresses.

(b)

The mechanical strength of specimens created by SLM

was tested using the four-point bending method. Five
specimens were tested and an average bending strength
of 9.79 MPa was measured. This value is very low
compared to a strength of more than 1000 MPa achieved
with this material using conventional manufacturing
techniques. The low strength is due to the large number of
micro-cracks that are quite evenly distributed throughout
the specimens.
To improve the mechanical strength, current work is
focusing on avoiding crack formation during the
manufacturing process. It is expected that the cracking
can be avoided by heating the build chamber to a
sufficiently high temperature during the build process. For

Figure 55 : SLM part and its cross-section [50]

Furthermore Fraunhofer ILT uses its SLM process to
process a -TCP/glass composite powder material. It has
been shown that the Selective Laser Melting process is
suitable to manufacture three dimensional freeform parts
from this class of material. The resulting parts have a
good resolution and accuracy as well as a high content of
the bioresorbable TCP phase. Therefore the process has
a good potential for the manufacture of customized bone
tissue scaffolds for clinically desired implants for
regenerative therapy. Improvements of the mechanical
properties may be achieved by modification of the
composite powder material and by mechanical

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in the previous sections. The present section will focus on

a few applications that do not directly fit and were not
discussed in the sections on polymers (Reinforced
polymer were already described in 3.1.4), metals (Metalmetal composites were described in 3.2.2), cermets and
hardmetals (described already in 3.3) and ceramics
(described already in 3.4). A typical example of a
composite that can be produced by SLS is PCL/HA, where
hydroxyapatite (HA) has been added to polycaprolactone
(PCL) for enhancing its strength and biocompatibility
[215].
In SLS/SLM, composites have been manufactured mainly
by using three methods:

compaction of each powder layer during the SLM process.

Within the scope of a recently started joint project the pore
microstructure of the SLM generated components will be
optimized, especially by modifying the granule size
distribution. Furthermore a bioactive glass for the
TCP/glass composite with a clinically made-to-measure
resorption capability will be developed and the SLM
process will be adapted to the optimized material. Figure
55 shows a SLM-manufactured part and its cross-section
[50]. Selective laser melting has also been applied for the
production of ultra-thin nonporous silicon layers [42].
3.4.7
Chemical-induced and Self-induced SLS of
ceramics
The Fraunhofer Institute IPT (Aachen, Germany) has
produced SiC ceramic parts using a kind of laser
chemical-induced binding [88]. No binder elements were
used and the laser-material interaction times were very
short, thus excluding the diffusion processes occurring in
Solid State Sintering. When heating the SiC particles to a
very high temperature, partial disintegration of the SiC into
Si and C occurs. The free Si forms SiO2, which acts as a
binder between the SiC particles. The parts are thus
composed of a mixture of SiC and SiO2. Afterwards an
infiltration step using Si yields full dense parts. Next to
SiC, also other ceramics were tested, e.g. Al2O3 and
ZiSiO4. Figure 56 shows a ceramic casting shell produced
by SLS.
The Osaka Sangyo University tried to produce cermets
(Al2O3-Cu), ceramics (MoSi2), and intermetallics (TiAl) by
SLS induced chemical reaction [80]. By adding chemical
reaction heat to laser heat, the particles of the products of
the reaction were bonded together by relatively low laser
energy. The Al2O3 for instance is obtained by chemical
reaction of CuO with Al. The exothermal heat of the
chemical reaction enlarges the laser heating, thereby
allowing the use of lower laser power (typically 3-6W or
2W/mm/sec). In order to keep the self propagating
reaction under control, inert substances were added to the
raw powder materials: e.g. Cu was added to the mixture of
CuO and Al, or TiAl was added to the mixture of Ti and Al.
The researchers from Osaka also added glass powder to
Ti and Al as an inert element aimed at controlling the selfpropagating TiAl reaction while acting as a binder phase
for the TiAl.
Some investigators invoke self-propagating hightemperature synthesis (SHS) to produce ceramic parts.
Slocombe e.g. has produced TiC-Al2O3 ceramic parts by
mixing up TiO2, Al and C powders and laser inducing an
exothermal reaction [182]. Further research is reported in
[189].

taking materials or material mixtures as required in the

end product [90, 91, 206, 207], e.g. formation of WCCo composite from a powder mixture of WC and Co
[112, 132],

using in-situ reaction, e.g. formation of Cu-TiC-TiB

composite from a powder mixture of Cu, Ti and B4C
[118],

using furnace treatment, e.g. formation of Al/AlN

composite by post-processing in an oven in the
presence of nitrogen gas and infiltrant Al alloy [173].
The various types are further elaborated in the coming
subsections.

3.5.1

Manufacturing composites by using twocomponent powders

This is the most common method used for consolidating a
composite. Most noticeable application is the formation of
Polymer Matrix Composites (PMC). The binding
mechanism involved is LPS. Polymer powders and
ceramic are mixed and laser sintered to form the
composite, e.g. PCL and HA [215], PEEK and HA [192],
PE and HA [70, 165], PA and nano-clay [84], PA and HA
[166, 167] etc. [29, 211]. It has been found that PMMAcoated HA powder could facilitate better consolidation of
the composite, but uncoated powder is used for the
reason of biocompatibility. Coating of the powder has
certain other advantages. In case of a nano Al2O3 and PS
composite, nano Al2O3 particles are coated with PS to
prevent the agglomeration of nano particles resulting in an
uniform distribution in the polymer matrix [219]. The
reinforced powder is used in the form of a particulate,
because the fibre as a reinforcement otherwise gives rise
to problem in layer flow and is not helpful in increasing the
final density and strength [11]. Instead of taking a mixture
of polymer powder and the reinforcement powder, a single
composite powder has also been used, e.g. glass-filled PA
powder, Al-filled PA powder [1, 46, 133], HA-filled HDPE
powder [165], HA-filled PA powder [166, 167], TCP-glass
powder [213] etc. Composite particles, instead of powder
mixtures, help to overcome the difficulty associated with
mixing the powders and yield uniform spread of composite
components in the final product. However, if one of the
components of the composite powder is a fiber, problems
of consolidation occur [11]. The method has also been
used to make Metal Matrix Composite (MMC), e.g Fe and
graphite [180], WC-Co [112, 132], WC-Co and Cu [63,
65], Fe, Ni and TiC [55] etc. and Ceramic Matrix
Composite (CMC) [50, 213].
SLS of ceramic and metal, in general, does not give as
dense products as is found in the case of PMC. In order to
fully consolidate it, extra material is added to the powder
mixture [65] or the porous product is infiltrated [112,132].
Addition of La2O3 to the mixture of WC-Co and Cu has
decreased the surface tension of the melt and
consequently increased its sinterability [65]. In other
cases, consolidation of WC and Co green product has
been done by infiltrating it with bronze [112,132].

Figure 56 : SLS-produced investment casting shell for

impeller wheel (source: Fraunhofer Institute IPT)
3.5 Composites
Selective laser sintering/melting is well suited to
manufacture parts in composite material by applying
powders that contains the two different materials to
compose the composite. This can be used to produce
polymer-metal, polymer-ceramic, metal-metal or metalceramic composites. Several examples have been given

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melting of metals. However, in several cases, a furnace

post-consolidation is needed, like post-sintering, infiltration
[5, 44, 143] or HIPing [37]. Post-consolidation may be
needed as well for intentionally porous final parts (to
reinforce necks and part strength) or for intended fully
dense final parts (increase density, strength, surface
smoothness, etc.). Post-consolidation is not treated in
detail in this paper: it partly consists of common PM
technology, even though important new developments
emerged specifically related to post-consolidation for
layered manufacturing [17, 68, 186]. Important in the
present context is to know that, if post-consolidation is to
be applied, the primary selective laser consolidation
process has to account for it. Some examples:

3.5.2

Manufacturing composites by using in-situ

reactions
Laser-induced chemical reactions are used to create insitu particles during laser sintering. The laser beam can
be used in two ways:
x

to overcome the activation energy of the reactants and

to form chemical compounds and

to trigger a chemical reaction which will not only form

the compound but generate enough thermal energy to
propagate chemical reactions.
Both types of in-situ formation of compounds are better
than the pre-addition of compounds because of following
reasons:
x

fine and uniform distribution of compounds

better wetting

x release of exothermic energy helping consolidation.

Examples of first type are the formation of Cu-based MMC
reinforced with TiB2 and TiC from a powder mixture of Cu,
Ti and B4C [118]. The second type is a case of Selfpropagating High-temperature Synthesis (SHS), e.g.
formation of TiC-Al2O3 composite from TiO2, Al and C
[182]; Al2O3-Cu composite from CuO and Al [80]; NiTi-HA
composite from Ni, Ti and HA [178,179]. In the latter case,
it has been found that though the product is porous, it
could be suitable as an implant material. Chemical
reactions also helped creating a binder phase in the case
of laser processing of SiC, where disintegration of SiC and
subsequent reaction with O2 gas forms SiO2 which binds
the remaining SiC powder particles [88]. This
consolidation mechanism does not yield strong parts and
has not been further used. However, the properties of the
parts have been enhanced with the help of infiltration. This
will be described in the following subsection.

If infiltration is to be used, the green part will have to

demonstrate (sufficient) open porosity. Experiments
have proved that a higher green density will prohibit
further densification by infiltration. A higher green
porosity is required in this case and laser processing
parameters will have to be chosen accordingly [106]. A
major issue is also to find the proper match between
laser processed powder and infiltration materials. A
typical example is the work of Sercombe on SLS of
aluminium: a first PA-coated Al powder (alloyed with
Mg to avoid oxidation that would hamper infiltration) is
used during SLS, while another eutectic Al powder is
applied for infiltration [171,172]. Infiltration is not only
used to consolidate SLS part; it has also been used to
enhance e.g. their optical properties [143].

On the contrary, post-sintering will only be possible if

the green part has a sufficient high density, which
might be open or closed. In many cases the green (i.e.
after SLS) or brown (i.e. after polymer debinding) parts
obtained in RM process chains do hardly reach
densities above 65%. Such green/brown densities are
typical for polymer coated powders (e.g. DTM
powders), the initial Ni-Cu-P bronze powders (e.g.
Directsteel, Electrolux, Mareco powders), WC-Co
powders, etc. Such high porosity will normally not
allow for post-sintering. Post-sintering tests were done
starting from green parts having 65% density. It turned
out not to be possible to reach near 100% density, but
an asymptotic density of 85% in Ar atmosphere and
95% in vacuum could be reached after some 2 hours
[126]. The success of post-sintering not only depends
on the initial density, but largely depends on other
characteristics, like size and bulkiness of the parts.
This is why it is hard to put a lower limit to the required
initial density.

In cases where infiltration should be avoided, because

it will introduce an undesired low melting infiltration
material into the part, while the green density is too low
to afford furnace post-sintering at (near) atmospheric
pressure, HIPing might be an appropriate postconsolidation process [37]. HIPing however, requires
the outer shell to be fully dense, which is not easy to
achieve in SLS even when applying different SLS
processing parameters for core and skin: see Figure
39 b and Figure 40 b. If the outer part surface cannot
be made fully dense during SLS, caning should be
applied before HIPing [37] which is generally
impossible with parts having complex geometries, as
most RP/RM parts are.

3.5.3

Manufacturing composites by using furnace

treatment
Post-processing of laser sintered materials in a furnace is
another way for manufacturing a composite [116]. It has
been mainly performed in two ways:
x

by using the furnace for debinding and/or infiltration,

by using the furnace for chemical reaction and

infiltration.
Examples of the first type are treating the laser sintered
acrylic/glass product in a furnace where the binders get
debound and glass partially changes to ceramic making a
glass-ceramic composite [34, 61]. In this case, composite
was manufactured using a furnace without using
infiltration. In another case, a laser sintered polymercoated SiC powder was infiltrated with Al in a furnace to
form MMC [8]. The second types are the most versatile
with the most used example being the formation of Si/SiC
composites. Laser processed SiC is treated with a
phenolic resin. The resin after curing in a furnace gives
rise to carbon which reacts with some of the infiltrant Si to
form SiC and produces finally Si-SiC composite. The
amount of SiC in the consolidated composite could be
controlled by the degree of treatment of the green product
with phenolic resin [47, 117]. Another noticeable example
of chemical reaction inside a furnace is the use of nitrogen
gas for reacting with the green product of Al alloy to form
AlN [173].

5 CONCLUSIONS
This paper has provided a survey of consolidation
mechanisms used in laser and powder bed based layered
manufacturing, i.e. selective laser sintering/melting
(SLS/SLM). It has demonstrated the main physical
mechanisms that influence the consolidation and how the
material properties and composition play an important

4 POST-CONSOLIDATION
Several of the selective powder consolidation techniques
described above allow obtaining the desired final part
(with full density or controlled porosity) directly, i.e. without
need of post-consolidation. This typically holds for
selective laser sintering of polymers and selective laser

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role. This explains why there are still many restrictions to

enlarging the scope of materials that are processed today.
Herewith the paper has led the basis for further R&D in
coming decades to expand the applicability of SLS/SLM to
a much larger range of materials yielding ever better part
and material properties.
6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank all people having
1
contributed to this paper, in particular ( = CIRP member):
x Persons having provided input to this paper: M.
1
1
1
Geiger , M. Schmidt, B. Hon , J. Meijer , and the many
persons having provided input during the CIRP STC-E
meetings
x Persons having provided input and contributed to the
writing: T. Craeghs, S. Kumar, E. Yasa, J. Van
Vaerenbergh, P. Mercelis, B. Vandenbroucke, A.
Demmer, T. Glaeser, C. Derichs, K. Dalgarno, M.
Badrossamay, R. Schindel, P. Schleiss
x All persons having contributed to the CIRP STC-E
Working Group on melt pool phenomena in laser
powder processing.
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