Title: The effect of neighbourhood scan path exposures on heat buildup: numerical investigations on the laser energy delivery in selective laser sintering process

Authors: Kurian Antony; Senthilkumaran Kumaraguru; Dhana Govind Meda

Addresses: School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, 632014, India ' School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, 632014, India ' School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, VIT University, Vellore, 632014, India

Abstract: Selective laser sintering (SLS) is one of the most rapidly developing additive manufacturing technologies used to build parts layer over layer from the CAD model. Generally the quality of the fabricated part is influenced by the process parameters and build conditions. This paper reports the numerical simulation of the SLS process built to study the effect neighbourhood exposures on the temperature distribution of the powder bed. This work investigates the effect of delay time between successive laser exposures under different laser parameters and scan length using a finite element thermal simulation. Furthermore, this study compares the heat distribution on the powder bed under two exposure strategies. A new fractal type scanning is found to homogenise the energy delivery over the conventional raster-type scanning. The results of this work would help process planners in deciding the best process parameters in SLS process and obtain a quality part.

Keywords: rapid manufacturing; selective laser sintering; SLS; neighbourhood effect; scan path; laser energy delivery; additive manufacturing; process parameters; fractal path; thermal simulation; heat buildup; numerical simulation; temperature distribution; powder bed; finite element method; FEM; process planning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAPIDM.2014.066010

International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing, 2014 Vol.4 No.2/3/4, pp.119 - 139

Received: 08 May 2013
Accepted: 04 Apr 2014
Published online: 30 Nov 2014 *

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