Characterization and optimization of laser sintering copolyamide/polyether sulfone hot-melt adhesive mixtures
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 19 December 2018
Issue publication date: 16 April 2019
Abstract
Purpose
A new kind of polymer mixture (co-PA-PES) was prepared in different mass ratios, by mixing polyether sulfone hot-melt adhesive (PES-HmA) and copolyamide B249 (PA-B249). This study aims to investigate its characteristics of laser sintering and get the optimal process parameters.
Design/methodology/approach
The effect of mass ratio of co-PA-PES on thermal behavior was analyzed using a simultaneous thermal analyzer, and the density and mechanical properties of sintered parts were tested to evaluate the performance of the polymeric system. Scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were performed to characterize the microstructure and binding mechanism of sintered co-PA-PES parts. Specifically, mechanical properties of the mixture with 20 Wt.% PA-B249 were optimized based on a design of experiment methodology, along with the restriction of maximum absorbable laser energy density.
Findings
Liquid phase fusion was considered as the main sintering mechanism for co-PA-PES, and mechanical interlocking was the dominant binding mechanism. The effects of mass ratios of this material on the thermal properties, density and mechanical properties were obtained via data results. Additionally, compared to neat PES-HmA, co-20 Wt.% PA-PES showed a 71.7 per cent increase in tensile strength, 24.4 per cent increase in flexural strength and 102.1per cent increase in impact strength.
Originality/value
This paper proposed a new kind of polymer mixture as the feedstock for laser sintering with the advantages of low price and easy processing. The filler of PA-B249 effectively improved the performance of the polymer mixture, including but not limited to mechanical properties.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 51475089), Special Funds from Central Government for Local Science and Technology Development (Grant Number ZY16C03), the National Key R&D Program of China (2017YFD0601004), Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities (Grant Number 2572018AB27), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Number 2572017BB07) and “Double First-Class” Fund of Northeast Forestry University (Grant Number 41113253).
Citation
Zhang, H., Guo, Y., Jiang, K., Bourell, D., Li, J. and Yu, Y. (2019), "Characterization and optimization of laser sintering copolyamide/polyether sulfone hot-melt adhesive mixtures", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 614-622. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-12-2017-0245
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited