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This paper aims to explore the influence of the reinforcement included either glass beads (GBs) or carbon fiber (CF) on the reinforced polyamide 12 (PA12) composite samples prepared by selective laser sintering (SLS).

In this paper, the microstructure and mechanical properties are investigated, and the results are compared with those obtained for non-reinforced pure PA12 samples prepared by SLS.

The tensile fracture surface of the non-reinforced pure PA12 sample presents strong micro-deformation within the crack origination zone between the melted PA12 matrix and the un-melted PA12 particle cores. As a result, the pure PA12 sample exhibits the greatest maximum elongation. The maximum tensile strength is obtained for the CF reinforced sample because of the strengthening effect of CF and the relatively good bonding between CFs and the PA12 matrix. The minimum tensile strength is obtained for the GB reinforced PA12 sample because of the relatively weak bonding between GBs and the PA12 matrix.

These results demonstrate that the characteristics of the interfaces between the reinforcement and the PA12 matrix have an important influence on the fracture mechanisms and mechanical properties of PA12 composites fabricated by SLS.

This paper aims to develop flame-retardant (FR) polyamide 12 (PA12) nanocomposite from regenerated powder via selective laser sintering (SLS), an additive manufacturing technique.

First, the morphology, processibility, thermal and mechanical properties of PA12 regenerated powder, consisting of 50 wt% new and 50 wt% recycled powder, as well as corresponding printed specimens, were evaluated to characterize the effects of previous SLS processing. Second, flame-retardant PA12 was developed by incorporating both single and binary halogen-free flame retardants into the regenerated powder.

It was found that the printed specimens from regenerated powder had much higher tensile and impact properties compared to specimens made from new powder, which is attributed to better particulate fusion and coalescence realized in higher temperature SLS printing. The effect of FRs on thermal, mechanical and flame retardant properties of the PA12 composites/nanocomposites was investigated systematically. It was found that the nanoclay, as a synergist, improved both flame-retardant and mechanical properties of PA12. UL94 standard rating of V-0 was achieved for the printed nanocomposite by incorporating 1 wt% nanoclay into 15 wt% phosphinates FR. Moreover, on average, the tensile and impact strength of the nanocomposite were increased by 26.13% and 17.09%, respectively, in XY, YZ and Z printing orientations as compared to the equivalent flame retardant composite with 20 wt% of the phosphinates FR.

This paper fulfills the need to develop flame retardant parts via SLS technology with waste feedstock. It also addresses the challenge of developing flame retardant materials without obviously compromising the mechanical properties by making use of the synergistic effect of nanoclay and organic phosphinates.

With the technological progress, high-performance materials are emerging in the market of additive manufacturing to comply with the advanced requirements demanded for technical applications. In selective laser sintering (SLS), innovative powder materials integrating conductive reinforcements are attracting much interest within academic and industrial communities as promising alternatives to common engineering thermoplastics. However, the practical implementation of functional materials is limited by the extensive list of conditions required for a successful laser-sintering process, related to the morphology, powder size and shape, heat resistance, melt viscosity and others. The purpose of this study is to explore composite materials of polyamide 12 (PA12) incorporating multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNP), aiming to understand their suitability for advanced SLS applications.

PA12-MWCNT and PA12-GNP materials were blended through a pre-optimized process of mechanical mixing with various percentages of reinforcement between 0.50 wt.% and 3.00 wt.% and processed by SLS with appropriate volume energy density. Several test specimens were produced and characterized with regard to processability, thermal, mechanical, electrical and morphological properties. Finally, a comparative analysis of the performance of both carbon-based materials was performed.

The results of this research demonstrated easier processability and higher tensile strength and impact resistance for composites incorporating MWCNT but higher tensile elastic modulus, compressive strength and microstructural homogeneity for GNP-based materials. Despite the decrease in mechanical properties, valuable results of electrical conductivity were obtained with both carbon solutions until 10^–6 S/cm.

The carbon-based composites developed in this research allow for the expansion of the applicability of laser-sintered parts to advanced fields, including electronics-related industries that require functional materials capable of protecting sensitive devices against electrostatic discharge.

Polyamide 12 (PA12) properties meet specific requirements for various applications in the automotive and aerospace industries. Bulk specimens made of PA12 and processed via the additive manufacturing technique such as selective laser sintering (SLS) present a layered structure. In case of structural applications, the fatigue performance of SLS PA12 parts is of vital importance and fatigue response studies in these type of materials are still scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of the applied load orientation on the fatigue crack propagation behaviour of the layered structure of SLS PA12.

With the aim of understanding the effect of the applied load with respect to the layer orientation on the fatigue crack growth of SLS PA12, fatigue crack growth tests were carried out at two orientations. The specimens called PARA were orientated in such a way that the applied force direction belongs to the layer plane while in the group called PERP, the tensile force direction is coincident with the build direction, that is, perpendicular to the slice. Besides, special attention has been paid to the analysis of the fracture surfaces of the specimens, linking the micromechanisms of failure with the microstructure of the material.

The SLS PA12 specimens tested with the load applied parallel to the layered structure show a little better fatigue response than those tested at perpendicular orientation. The fracture surfaces of the specimens tested at perpendicular orientation are slightly smoother than those tested at parallel orientation. Crazes are the main micromechanism of failure with a crater size of 50 microns, which coincide with the spherulite size. This indicates that the void nucleation of the crazes takes places between lamellae inside the spherulites, and consequently, the craze growth and rupture occurs mainly in a transspherulitic mode.

PA12 parts manufactured via SLS are becoming more valuable in structural elements in the automative and aeronatical fields. In such applications, fatigue performance is vital for design. Fatigue studies are scarce in literature and even more when dealing with fatigue crack growth behaviour. The value of this work is the analysis of the fatigue crack growth response of these materials taking into account the anisotropic microstructure and to get a better understanding, this behaviour is explained taking into account the micromechanisms of failure and the microstructure of the material.

The purpose of this study is to establish a finite element (FE) model with the random distribution of the Nylon12/hydroxyapatite (PA12/HA) composite material in selective laser sintering (SLS) process for considering the material anisotropy, which aims to obtain the law of temperature and stress changes in PA12/HA sintering.

By using python script in Abaqus, the FE model is established in which the two materials are randomly distributed and are assigned to their intrinsic temperature-dependent physical parameters. Molten pool sizes at various process parameters were evaluated in terms of numerical simulation and scanning electron microscope analysis, identifying a good agreement between them. Evaluation of temperature and stress distribution under the condition of different HA contents was also conducted.

It shows that the uneven distribution and quantity of HA powder play a vital role in stress concentration and temperature increase. Additionally, the influence of HA addition on the mechanical performance of SLS-fabricated parts shows that it is conducive to improve compressive strength when the HA ratio is less than 5% because an excess of HA powder tends to bring about a certain amount of microspores resulting in a decrease in part density.

The FE model of the PA12/HA composite material with parameterized random distribution in SLS can be applied in other similar additive manufacturing technologies. It provides a feasible guideline for the numerical analysis of properties of composite materials.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of selective laser sintering (SLS) method on morphology and performance of polyamide 12.

Crystallization behavior is critical to the properties of semi-crystalline polymers. The crystallization condition of SLS process is much different from others. The morphology of polyamide 12 produced by SLS technology was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, polarized light microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction and wide-angle X-ray diffraction.

Too low fill laser power brought about bad fusion of powders, while too high energy input resulted in bad performance due to chain scission of macromolecules. There were three types of crystal in the raw powder material, denoted as overgrowth crystal, ring-banded spherulite and normal spherulite.

In this work, SLS samples with different sintering parameters, as well as compression molding sample for the purpose of comparison, were made to study the morphology and crystal structure of sintered PA12 in detail.

This work aims to evaluate the influence of rheological properties of building materials on the bonding quality and ultimate tensile strength in the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process, through the investigation of parts printed by semi-crystalline and amorphous resins. Little information is currently available about the influence of the crystalline nature on FDM-printed part quality.

Semi-crystalline polyamide 12 and amorphous acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) were used to assess the influence of rheological properties on bonding quality and the tensile strength, by varying three important process parameters: materials, liquefier temperature and raster orientation. A fractography of both tensile and freeze-fractured samples was also investigated.

The rheological properties, mainly the melt viscosity, were found to have a significant influence on the bonding quality of fused filaments. Better bonding quality and higher tensile strength of FDM parts printed with semi-crystalline PA12, as compared with amorphous ABS, are suggested to be a result of higher initial sintering rates owing to the lower melt viscosity of PA12 at low shear rates. Near-full dense PA12 parts were obtained by FDM.

This project provides a variety of data and insight regarding the effect of materials properties on the mechanical performance of FDM-printed parts. The results showed that FDM technique allows the production of PA12 parts with adequate mechanical performance, overcoming the greatest limitation of a dependence on amorphous thermoplastics as a feedstock for the production of prototypes.

This paper aims to provide a detailed study on influence of the laser energy density on mechanical, surface and dimensional properties of polyamide 12 (PA12) parts produced by selective laser sintering (SLS), providing the microstructural and crystallization evolution of the samples produced at different energy densities.

Making use of a space filling design of experiments, a wide range of laser sintering parameters is covered. Surface morphology is assessed by means of profile measurements and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. Mechanical testing, SEM, X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to assess the influence of energy density on structural and mechanical properties.

Results show a high dependency of the properties on the laser energy density and also a compromise existing between laser exposure parameters and desired properties of laser sintered parts. Surface roughness could be associated to overlap degree when using higher scan line spacing values and lower laser speeds improved surface roughness when high scan line spacing is used. Higher mechanical properties were found at higher energy density levels, but excessively high energy density decreased mechanical properties. A transition from brittle to ductile fracture with increasing energy density could be clearly observed by mechanical analysis and SEM. XRD and DSC measurements show a decrease on the crystal fraction with increasing energy densities, which corroborated the plastic behavior observed, and FTIR measurements revealed polymer degradation through chain scission might occur at too high energy densities.

Valuable guidelines are given regarding energy density optimization for SLS of PA12 considering not only quality criteria but also microstructure characteristics. Surface properties are studied based on the concept of degree of overlap between laser scanning lines. For the first time, crystallization behavior of SLS PA12 parts produced at different energy levels was studied by means of XRD measurements. Polymer degradation of SLS PA12 parts was evaluated with FTIR, which is a non-destructive and easy test to be conducted.

The cooling process of polymer components fabricated by selective laser sintering (SLS) plays a vital role in determining the crystallinity, density and the resultant properties of the produced parts. However, the control and optimization of the cooling process remains challenging. The purpose of this paper is to therefore investigate the cooling process of the SLS fabricated polyamide 12 (PA12) components through simulations. This work provides necessary fundamental insights into the possibilities for optimization and control of this cooling process for achieving desired properties.

The thermal properties of the PA12 powder and SLS fabricated PA12 components including density, specific heat and thermal conductivity were first determined experimentally. Then, the finite element method was used to optimize a container (a cuboid aluminum box where PA12 parts are built by the SLS) geometry in which the SLS parts can cool down in a controlled manner. Also, the cooling parameters required for maximum temperature homogeneity and minimum cooling time were determined.

Two different approximations in the finite element (FE) model were used and compared. It was found that the approximation which considers powder as a solid medium with porous material properties gives better results as compared to the approximation which treats powder as a collection of air and particles with solid material properties. The results also showed that the geometry of the containers has an important influence on the cooling process of the SLS fabricated PA12 components regarding temperature homogeneity and cooling time required. A container with a small width, long length and high height tends to result in a more homogenous temperature distribution during the cooling process.

Thermal constants of PA12 powder and parts were accurately determined as a starting point for numerical simulations. The FE model developed in this work provides useful and necessary information for the optimization and control of the cooling process of the SLS fabricated PA12 components and can thus be used for ensuring high-quality products with desired component properties.

This study aims to comprehensively investigate the mixed-mode fracture behavior and mechanical properties of selective laser sintering (SLS) polyamide 12 (PA12) components, considering different build orientations and layer thicknesses. The primary objectives include the following. Conducting mixed-mode fracture and mechanical analyses on SLS PA12 parts. Investigating the influence of build orientation and layer thickness on the mechanical properties of SLS-printed components. Examining the fracture mechanisms of SLS-produced Arcan fracture and tensile specimens through experimental methods and finite element analyses.

The research used a combination of experimental techniques and numerical analyses. Tensile and Arcan fracture specimens were fabricated using the SLS process with varying build orientations (X, X–Y, Z) and layer thicknesses (0.1 mm, 0.2 mm). Mechanical properties, including tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and critical stress intensity factor, were quantified through experimental testing. Mixed-mode fracture tests were conducted using a specialized fixture, and finite element analyses using the J-integral method were performed to calculate fracture toughness. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for detailed morphological analysis of fractured surfaces.

The investigation revealed that the highest tensile properties were achieved in samples fabricated horizontally in the X orientation with a layer thickness of 0.1 mm. Additionally, parts manufactured with a layer thickness of 0.2 mm exhibited favorable mixed-mode fracture behavior. The results emphasize the significance of build orientation and layer thickness in influencing mechanical properties and fracture behavior. SEM analysis provided valuable insights into the failure mechanisms of SLS-produced PA12 components.

This study contributes to the field of additive manufacturing by providing a comprehensive analysis of the mixed-mode fracture behavior and mechanical properties of SLS-produced PA12 components. The investigation offers novel insights into the influence of build orientation and layer thickness on the performance of such components. The combination of experimental testing, numerical analyses and SEM morphological observations enhances the understanding of fracture behavior in additive manufacturing processes. The findings contribute to optimizing the design and manufacturing of high-quality PA12 components using SLS technology.