Low Temperature Laser Sintering on a Standard System: First Attempts and Results with PA12

The laser sintering process has been a well-established AM process for many years. Disadvantages of LS are the low material variety and the thermal damage of the unprocessed material. The low temperature laser sintering attacks at this point and processes powder material at a build chamber temperature lower than the recrystallization temperature. This drastic reduction in temperature results in significantly less thermal damage to the material. This work deals with the low temperature laser sintering of Polyamide 12 (PA12) on a commercial, unmodified laser sintering system to compare it to standard laser sintered PA12 and to create the basis for low temperature laser sintering of high temperature materials on such a system. First results by changing the exposure parameters and by fixing parts on a building platform show a processing of PA12 on an EOS P396 at a build chamber temperature less than 100 °C instead of standard approx. 175 °C.