Selective laser melting of glass with irregular shaped powder

Glass has unique physical characteristics, such as transparency, chemical durability, thermal stability, and electric resistivity, making it an attractive material for numerous industries. As a result, there is a growing interest in the additive manufacturing of glass powder. However, most of the selective laser melting (SLM) processes primarily rely on the utilization of spherical glass powder, and there are no reports of the use of non-spherical glass powders. This paper explores the benefits and possibilities of irregular shaped powder used in SLM of glass. Through a progression of experiments from single-track to single-layer and, ultimately, cube fabrication, the relative density of cube samples was as high as 95%. Feasibility examples were successfully demonstrated, indicating that the irregularly-shaped soda-lime silica glass powder can be successfully used in the SLM process and that process parameter changes can be optimized to yield builds with comparable porosity levels to builds using typical spherical powder.