AMB2018-04: Benchmark Physical Property Measurements for Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing of Polyamide 12

Published

August 5, 2019

Author(s)

Erich D. Bain, Edward Garboczi, Jonathan Seppala, Thomas C. Parker, Kalman D. Migler

Abstract

Laser sintering (LS) of polyamide 12 (PA12) is increasingly being adopted for industrial production of end-use parts, yet the complexity of this process coupled with the lack of organized, rigorous, publicly available process-structure-physical property datasets exposes manufacturers and customers to risks of unacceptably poor part quality and high costs. Although an extensive scientific literature has been developed to address some of these concerns, results are distributed among numerous reports based on different machines, materials, process parameters, and users. In this study a wide range of physical techniques are used to characterize a commercially important LS PA12 feedstock processed along four build dimensions of a modern production LS machine and compared to the same material formed by conventional melt processing. Results are discussed in the context of the literature, offering novel insights including the magnitude of environmental humidity effect on glass transition temperature, localization of semicrystalline phase changes due to LS processing, effect of chemical aging on melt viscosity over time, porosity orientation relative to LS build axes, and microstructural effects on tensile properties and failure mechanisms identified through fractography.

Citation

Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

Powder bed fusion, PBF, polymer, selective laser sintering, SLS, rheology, thermal characterization, tensile, ATR, nylon 12, additive manufacturing

Citation

Bain, E. , Garboczi, E. , Seppala, J. , Parker, T. and Migler, K. (2019), AMB2018-04: Benchmark Physical Property Measurements for Powder Bed Fusion Additive Manufacturing of Polyamide 12, Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927569 (Accessed September 16, 2024)