By: Shen Xianfeng

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) of metal powders, namely Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) is an emerging Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (RPM) technology which can be used to produce three-dimensional metal parts directly from a CAD model by the selective laser sintering (SLS) of successive layers of metallic or pre-alloyed powders. SLS of metal powders is becoming a significant trend of Direct Manufacture (DM) for the unique advantage in direct manufacturing of metal parts and eliminating the expensively time-consuming pre- and post-processing steps, compared to indirect laser sintering or other conventional processes. In the laser sintering process of metal powder, the substrate plays an important role in DMLS. As a matter of fact, the substrates are commonly used for avoiding the balling effect in powder melting and dislocation of sintered part. So the issue of the substrate role in the process is becoming one of the research focuses. Continue reading →