High Speed Sintering - Continuing research into a new Rapid Manufacturing process

High Speed Sintering (HSS) is an emerging layer manufacturing technique aiming to break into the lucrative field of Rapid Manufacturing (RM). The process is likened to Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), however, instead of a laser dictating the sintered cross sectional area of each layer, the desired area is first printed using a Radiation Absorbing Material (RAM) and then sintered using an inexpensive infrared lamp. This paper begins by describing the sintering process in more detail and then outlining the overall manufacturing cycle. It then continues by describing the experiments performed to investigate the current problem concerning the hardness of excess powder within the powder bed. This problem arose due to the continual exposure of the whole bed to infrared radiation from the lamp. The experiments showed that as the power of the IR lamp increased, the hardness of the bed also increased. Furthermore, at higher IR power levels it was found the excess powder produced a solid tile which could only be broken down by a glass bead blaster.