Parametric Optimization of the Process of Selective Laser Sintering Process in Rapid Prototyping Technology- A Review

Compared with traditional material subtractive manufacturing technologies, rapid prototyping is a layer-based material additive process and can produce a 3-D freeform object with a CAD-defined geometric model directly. As one of the advanced rapid prototyping and manufacturing processes, the direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) process gives designers the possibility to build parts of almost any complexity in a wide range of metallic materials. The quality of SLS made parts are highly depends upon various process parameters of process variable parameters of layer thickness (A), scan speed (B), scan spacing (C), laser power (D), and bed temptarture (E) Part Orientation on the mechanical properties viz. tensile, flexural, impact strength and hardness of part fabricated using selective metal laser sintering technology. To conduct this study, a full Taguchi experiment was used to obtain the test runs. A number of analytical methods Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), used to determine the influence of the variable SLS process parameter settings. Hence optimization of SLS process parameters is necessary in order to improve the quality of parts. The purpose of this paper is to explore the reviews for various optimization methods used for process parameter optimization of SLS process.