Sintering and Microstructures of SUS 316L Powder Produced by 3D Printing Process

Abstract

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a type of laminating sintering technique, using CO2 laser with (metal, polymer, and ceramic) powders. In this result, the flake SUS 316L was used to achieve a high porous product, and compare to spherical type. After SLS, the porosity of flake-type sample with 34% was quite higher than that of the spherical-type one that had only 11%. The surface roughness of the flake SLS sample were also investigated in both inner and surface parts. The results show that the deviation of the roughness of the surface part is about 64.40μm, while that of the internal one was about 117.65μm, which presents the containing of high porosity in the uneven surfaces. With the process using spherical powder, the sample was quite dense, however, some initial particles still remained as a result of less energy received at the beneath of the processing layer.

Keywords

• Stainless Steel
• 3D-Printing
• Selective laser sintering
• SUS 316L
• Flake powder