Rapid prototyping manufacturing of silica sand patterns based on selective laser sintering

In recent years, rapid prototyping manufacturing technology (RPM) has gradually becoming matured, and has been widely used in the fabrication of functional and practical metal and ceramic components. However, researches on the selective laser sintering (SLS) of silica sands were very limited. Experiments on rapid prototyping manufacturing of silica sands were carried out based on SLS. Micro morphologies of the sintered patterns under different working conditions were observed with three-dimensional optical microscopy (OM). Influences of process parameters such as laser power, scanning speed, overlapping rate, laser beam diameter and powder mixture ratio on the dimension accuracy and sintered qualities were investigated systematically. It indicated that "stepping effect" and deformation of the sintered samples reduced through the decreasing of slicing thickness and the optimization of process parameters. Finally, qualified selective laser sintering silica sand patterns were obtained.