For teeth restoring single metal-ceramic crowns were the gold-standard for many years. Selective laser sintering is a new technology which can provide accurate complex-shaped frameworks for dental restorations, layer-by-layer, according to a three-dimensional computer model, using metal powder. An important factor for long term success of fixed prostheses is the marginal and internal adaptation...

Background: Recently, rapid prototyping technology is the future of quick and direct production. This technology found applications with metal framework of fixed partial dentures, framework of removable partial dentures, facial prostheses and titanium implants in prosthetic dentistry. Laser beam sintered the selected areas on the alloy powders and the restoration is produced layer by layer at s...

A new type of wood plastic composite, Eucalyptus/PES(Polyethersulfone) blend, was developed. It was designed to be used in LS (Laser Sintering) with reduced energy usage with cost savings. The preparation of Eucalyptus/PES blend and part sintering were under fixed processing conditions and parameters. Through mechanical testing, it was discovered that the strength of prototypes is low due to th...

This paper describes a rapid prototyping (RP) technology for forming a hydroxyapatite (HA) bone scaffold model. The HA powder and a silica sol are mixed into bioceramic slurry form under a suitable viscosity. The HA particles are embedded in the solidified silica matrix to form green parts via a wide range of process parameters after processing by selective laser sintering (SLS). The results in...

Enhancing the charge transfer process in nanocrystal sensitized solar cells is vital for the improvement of their performance. In this work we show a means of increasing photo-induced ultrafast charge transfer in successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) CdS-TiO2 nanocrystal heterojunctions using pulsed laser sintering of TiO2 nanocrystals. The enhanced charge transfer was attribut...

Fabrication of mechanically competent bioactive scaffolds is a great challenge in bone tissue engineering. In this paper, β-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) scaffolds were successfully fabricated by selective laser sintering combined with furnace sintering. Bioglass 45S5 was introduced in the process as liquid phase in order to improve the mechanical and biological properties. The results showed th...

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an attractive rapid prototyping and manufacturing (RP&M) technology as well as two-component metal powder has high melting pointer, high mechanical properties and high wear resistance. Hence, it’s meaningful to analyze its temperature field distribution and dynamical evolution rule in sintering process. A three-dimensional transient finite element model of SLS...

Hydroxyapatite, a ceramic with which natural bone inherently bonds, has been incorporated into a polymer matrix to enhance the bioactivity of implant materials. In order to manufacture custom-made bioactive implants rapidly, selective laser sintering has been investigated to fabricate hydroxyapatite and polyamide composites and their properties investigated. One objective of this research was t...

Rapid prototypings using direct selective laser sintering (SLS) ofmetal/ceramic powders have a great potential for design and fabrication of near net shape of metal/ceramic parts. At presents CO2, Nd:YAG and Excimer are the only possible solutions for the heavy duty manufacturing applications. At the University of Connecticut, researchers advanced the concept of rapid prototyping and other desk...

Layered manufacturing (LM) is gaining ground for manufacturing prototypes (RP), tools (RT) and functional end products (RM). Laser and powder bed based manufacturing (i.e. selective laser sintering/melting or its variants) holds a special place within the variety of LM processes: no other LM techniques allow processing polymers, metals, ceramics as well as many types of composites. To do so, ho...