By: Li Xiaogang

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is an important branch of Laser Rapid Manufacturing which has been developing based on Laser Cladding Technology. With the development of laser manufacturing, SLS plays an important role in commercial realm. In some case vertical sintering/cladding using laser to repair big part in work site is inevitable. In this paper, an approach of laser vertical sintering with magnetic field has been explored. As is shown in the following pictures, the powder was paved on a substrate with magnetic field. The experiment system of laser vertical sintering include iron powder, iron substrate, magnet and iron shelf. The iron shelf can sustain the weight of iron powder and iron substrate. and a tight part with specific thickness and shape could be made under the control of magnetic field. During the entire operation the powder can be controlled easily and a clean workplace can be achieved. The magnetic field can help to improve the quality of crystallization during sintering/melting. In laser vertical sintering/cladding the liquid downward mobility leads to a more width of molten pool, which has a great help for improving the molten pool’s spreadability. To some extent, using laser beam to sinter powder vertically has an obvious advantage of its process mechanism, which has potential applications in industry.

The above brief overview was extracted from its original abstract and paper presented at The International Congress on Applications of Lasers & Electro-Optics (ICALEO) in Orlando, FL. To order a copy of the complete proceedings from this conference click here