RAPID MANUFACTURING USING ADVANCED LASER SINTERING TECHNOLOGY

摘要

Since the "time to market" concept has become a critical factor affecting industry's competitive nature in the global market, the requirements of the industries are similar to all-shorten product development cycle, improve product quality and reduce product cost. The need to reduce time and cost in the product development process has brought up a wide range of different technologies for rapid prototyping, rapid tooling and rapid manufacturing. This paper presents laser sintering technology, which uses different powder materials to produce models and moulds within hours directly from three dimensional computer aided design data in a fully automatic process. It outlines and describes recent developments both in materials and processes, which enable the user to benefit from this advanced laser-based layer manufacturing technique not only for rapid prototyping but also for rapid tooling and, most important, for rapid manufacturing.