ABSTRACT
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is one of the additive manufacturing techniques used prominently these days for fabrication of polymer and metallic parts. Strength always remains an issue for this process as it involves sintering of powders, which allows porosity in the fabricated part. The issue regains its importance further if the part has designed porosity. In this chapter an effort has been made to understand the SLS process. The kinematics involved in the process has also been studied. The various process parameters such as layer thickness, hatch spacing, laser power, refresh rate, scan speed and their contribution to the fabricated part strength are also discussed. The contribution of various researchers in predicting SLS part strength in solid as well as in porous form has also been reviewed. A mathematical model for predicting the compressive strength of open cell porous regular interconnected structure of PA-2200 using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) has been developed, and contribution of an individual process parameter is discussed. Using a trust region algorithm, optimized process parameters have also been arrived.
