LAUSR

Factors such as not only costs, production time, reproducibility, but also the quality of the components are decisive factors in assessing the economic efficiency of a manufacturing process. With additive manufacturing processes, component production is made possible directly from a 3D CAD model. This means that small series and prototypes can already be produced economically today. In this area, the laser-sintering process, in particular, offers great potential for series production due to its high strength values and ductility. With laser-sintering systems that allow an optical widening of the laser focus, a faster exposure of the component and thus a shortening of the building time is possible. We developed a laser-sintering system whose laser focus diameter is adjustable in its cross-sectional area from 0.47 to 2 mm. The goal for the future is to produce large-area components significantly faster by widening the focus diameter, thus making laser-sintering more productive. In this paper, the focus-dependent melt pool formation is examined in correlation to different hatch distances during the laser-sintering of polyamide 12. For this purpose, a test specimen was developed which can display single tracks as well as a multitude of different track widths for all feasible focus level variations. This knowledge is required to determine and investigate the track width-dependent melt pool formation as a function of the focal diameter of the component cross sections.