First, do not degrade – Dual Beam Laser Sintering of polymers

Abstract

In this paper, the method of Dual Beam Laser Sintering of polymers (DBLS) is presented for the first time. In this method, rather than heating the entire volume of the polymer throughout the entire process, a second, additional laser is used to heat the material selectively in terms of volume and time. The principle of operation and the design of the prototype are presented. Using the developed system, an experiment has been carried out in which samples of technical polylactide (PLA) powder were sintered for selected process parameters. This experiment confirms that the proposed method is fully functional and proves that sintering can be controlled in a wide range. A preliminary comparison of the changes in the physicochemical properties of the obtained samples compared to those sintered by standard polymer Laser Sintering (pLS) was carried out using Gel Permeation Chromatography, Fourier Transform Infrared Reflectance and Differential Scanning Calorimetry. Our experiment shows that the method has a potential to limit the thermal degradation of sensitive polymer materials. • The design and principle of operation of the Dual Beam LS station were presented. • The change in PLA properties as a function of process parameters was examined. • The potential of the method to limit the thermal degradation of polymers was shown. • Lower degradation of the post-process powder by the DBLS method was demonstrated.