Experimental and numerical analysis of the selective laser sintering (SLS) of PA12 and PEKK semi-crystalline polymers

A dual experimental-numerical approach was carried out to estimate thermal cycles and resulting fusion depths obtained during the selective laser sintering (SLS) of two polymers: PA12 and PEKK. The validation of thermal cycles was obtained by considering fusion depths on single layers for different experimental conditions and temperature measurements with IR thermal camera. It was shown that a simple Beer-Lambert's heat deposit equation incorporating an extinction coefficient determined experimentally and an efficiency ratio including both laser absorption and diffusion in the powder bed were sufficient for determining accurately fusion depths, and heat cycles for the two polymers. This allowed determining optimum process conditions for manufacturing additive layers on a specifically-designed SLS set-up.