Selective Laser Sintering SLS

SFF encompasses many different approaches to additive fabrication, including Stereolithography (SLA), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Electron Beam Melting (EBM), Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), and 3D Printing. 

Despite the fact that Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is not an Inkjet 3D printing process, due to its industrial importance, a brief description of this method is included here. 

The selective laser sintering (SLS) process is also known as laser powder deposition (24). Laser deposition is a solid free-form fabrication method. There, a laser beam is used to melt an addition material to create a material track with approximately hemispherical cross section. 

In a second variation, selective laser sintering (SLS), which relies on thermal fusion of a thermoplastic powder. Instead of a liquid adhesive, a laser beam is used to melt the powder selectively to form a layer of the object. The fabrication chamber is maintained at a temperature just below the melting point of the powder so that heat from the laser elevates the temperature slightly to cause sintering. This greatly speeds up the process, and the process will be repeated until the entire object is fabricated. 

In selective laser sintering (SLS), components are built layer by layer by scanning a laser beam over a thin layer of powdered material (74). For polymers and some metals, interaction of the laser beam with the powder raises the temperature to the point of melting, resulting in particle bonding and fusion of the particles to themselves as well as to the previous layer to form a solid object. Crystalline... 

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a technology similar to 3DP, with the difference being that a high-intensity laser (usually a CO2 laser) is used to selectively fuse the polymer powder. SLS thus avoids any organic solvent and addresses some of the drawbacks of 3DP. SLS minimizes the use of excessive polymer powder, making it one of the most convenient SFF technologies for the fabrication of complex structures,... 

Peyre P, Rouchausse Y, Defauchy D, R6gnier G. Experimental and numerical analysis of the selective laser sintering (SLS) of PA12 and PEKK semi-crystalline polymers. J Mater Process Technol 2015 225 326-36. 

Tan et al. [5] obtained 3D scaffolds using selective laser sintering (SLS) of PEEK/HAp biocomposites. Blends of PEEK/HAp were produced by mixing pure PEEK and HAp powders in different weight percentages using a roller-mixer the prepared powder blends were then processed using an SLS system (Fig. 8). 

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