In this article, we present the first results on laser sintering of metallic or ceramic parts. First, we present the sintering process. The global process is overviewed, from the CAD file to the generation of the laser scanning of the powder.
The machine is then described. The system is capable to build parts of about 250mm of diameter and 300mm height. The process chamber can be heated up to 800°C, which is necessary to process certain types of ceramics. We emphasis the interest to use a 100W fiber laser for this type of application.
The sintering process has a large number of parameters (slicing parameters, layering parameters, lasing parameters). As the machine is very opened in term of parameters tuning, we propose a global strategy for the parameter search. Two examples are presented: one with metallic powder and one with ceramic powder.
The parts show good geometry. The ceramic parts require heat treatment in order to decrease the porosity level, and improve mechanical properties. The results on metallic parts depend mainly on the powder used. We show very good compactness on iron-based material and promising results for titanium-based and nickel-based alloys.