Characterization of direct selective laser sintering of alumina

Abstract

The last three decades have seen a growing trend towards high-temperature ceramic parts processed with selective laser sintering technology, due to recent development of laser processing facilities. The aim of the present research is to understand the effect of the laser sintering parameters (power and laser scanning speed) on the quality of the sintered layer characteristics (layer surface roughness, layer thickness, layer deformation, and vector/line width). Moreover, the influence of the laser sintering parameters on layer physical properties and microstructure are investigated. Based on the obtained results, the physical properties for fabricating sintering layer can be improved. The results show that maximum density of the sintered ceramic layers are of 3.54 g/cm3 and minimum porosity of 4.34%. The hardness of the higher physical properties was measured with Vickers micro hardness and was found to be 1682 Hv with standard deviation 113.