Material Properties of Laser Sintered Polyamide 12 as Function of Build Cycles Using Low Refresh Rates

Due to long process times at high temperatures, unmolten polyamide 12 material ages during the manufacturing process. Hence, it needs to be refreshed with new material for further build cycles. In application, refresh rates of about 50 % are commonly used. In this work, the recycling optimized material PA 2221 from EOS is analyzed along a series of 13 build and refresh cycles using a reduced refresh rate of 32 %. Before and after every build, the powder is analyzed regarding melt properties determined by MVR and DSC measurements. Thereby, in-process ageing effects are investigated and the steady-state conditions are determined accordingly. In addition, powder properties are directly linked to resulting mechanical and geometrical part properties. Key findings are a robust DSC measurement method for polyamide 12 powder, constant “circulated” material properties after three build/refresh cycles and robust tensile properties along the whole tested powder life cycle. As a result, process conditions of PA 2221 using reduced refresh rates can be derived from this work.