Study in performance and morphology of polyamide 12 produced by selective laser sintering technology
ISSN: 1355-2546
Article publication date: 27 June 2018
Issue publication date: 20 September 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of selective laser sintering (SLS) method on morphology and performance of polyamide 12.
Design/methodology/approach
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.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank National Natural Science Foundation of China (51433006), Sichuan science and technology plan project (2017JY0069) and The open project of Key Laboratory for Precision and Non-Traditional Machining Technology, Dalian University of Technology (JMTZ201702) for financial support. They are indebted to Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) in Shanghai, China for WAXD experiments.
Citation
Wu, J., Xu, X., Zhao, Z., Wang, M. and Zhang, J. (2018), "Study in performance and morphology of polyamide 12 produced by selective laser sintering technology", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 813-820. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-01-2017-0010
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited