Abstract

In this paper, the use of electrophotographic polymer powder transfer for the preparation of multi-material layers is discussed with respect to the application in powder bed-based additive manufacturing technologies as selective laser sintering (SLS). Therefore, the challenges of this task are considered verifying the critical process steps in order to develop a concept for an electrophotograhic laser sintering machine. On that basis, an experimental setup with a two-chamber design is realized which enables the investigation of the electrophotographic powder transfer at typical process conditions of SLS. Using this setup, transfer tests of polypropylene powder patterns were performed and qualitatively analyzed by photographic imaging. The results confirm the high potential of the application of electrophotography for multi-material powder deposition and show how a residual electrophotographic powder deposition can be achieved in general, which is independent from the already produced part height, in order to build up three-dimensional multi-material components.

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