Abstract
Polysulfone (PSU) has been processed into powder form by ball milling, rotor milling, and spray drying technique in an attempt to produce new materials for Selective Laser Sintering purposes. Both rotor milling and spray drying were adept to make spherical particles that can be used for this aim. Processing PSU pellets by rotor milling in a three-step process resulted in particles of 51.8 μm mean diameter, whereas spray drying could only manage a mean diameter of 26.1 μm. The resulting powders were characterized using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) and X-ray Diffraction measurements (XRD). DSC measurements revealed an influence of all processing techniques on the thermal behavior of the material. Glass transitions remained unaffected by spray drying and rotor milling, yet a clear shift was observed for ball milling, along with a large endothermic peak in the high temperature region. This was ascribed to the imparting of an orientation into the polymer chains due to the processing method and was confirmed by XRD measurements. Of all processed powder samples, the ball milled sample was unable to dissolve for GPC measurements, suggesting degradation by chain scission and subsequent crosslinking. Spray drying and rotor milling did not cause significant degradation.
Highlights
Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a process which builds 3D objects by selectively sintering successive layers of powdered material with a laser
Polysulfone pellets were processed into powder form for the use in Selective Laser Sintering
Rotor milling could successfully be used in a three step refinement process to produce particles of desired size
Summary
Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a process which builds 3D objects by selectively sintering successive layers of powdered material with a laser. Tooling costs are greatly lowered and parts can be modified or even switched during build-up. With the growing interest in SLS as printing process, the demand for materials with more diverse chemical and mechanical properties compared to the conventional powders has surfaced. Adding new materials to the supply of processable polymers could substantially broaden the application window by widening the range of mechanical and thermal properties. This diversification of processable polymers is part of the solution to the rising demand.
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