Let's know about the key benefits of SLS
What is selective laser sintering (SLS)?
SLS is used for both plastic and metal prototyping and uses a powerful bed to build a prototype layer at a time simply by using a laser to heat and sinter the powdered material. But, the strength of the parts is not as good as Stereolithography. (SLA). The surface of the finished item is rough and needs secondary work to finish it.
What is selective laser sintering used for?
If anyone wants to improve his product development process, SLS rapid prototyping service can help him. It has many benefits for designers and engineers and could be a great opportunity to try out efficient designs and manufacturing processes for your projects.
Furthermore, when 3-D printing with the SLS in rapid prototyping process, one can use various materials like nylon pa12, TPU, PA6 and so on. You have to choose the material properties that fit your project. Also, the applications for 3 D printing process are consumer products, models, drones, special machinery, jewellery, watches and robotics. Apart from this, other applications are sports equipment, education, medical devices m, footwear, jigs and fixtures, medical devices and more. All parts you will need from functional prototyping to production can be manufactured using this additive manufacturing technology. Big thanks to these additive manufacturing techniques, one will be able to create concept models and parts for functional tests.
What are the key advantages of SLS?
- SLS allows for parts to be built within other parts in nesting as it is completely self-supporting with very complex geometry that simply could not be constructed any other way.
- Different finishing possibilities such as metallisation, vibratory grinding, power, costing and more).
- Parts possess high strength and stiffness
- Great chemical resistance.
- Complex parts with interior components and channels can be built without trapping the material inside and altering the surface from support removal.
- The material is used to substitute typical injection molding plastics because of its great mechanical properties.
- Huge variety of materials and features of durability, strength and functionality, SLS provides nylon based materials as a solution depending on the application.
Although SLS has many benefits, there are some limitations to its use and warranting the need for the other forms of 3D printing. The key drawback of SLS is cost. A desktop SLS printer is a few thousand dollars compared to FDM and SLA printers that are obtainable for $500 or even less. SLS printers are great for prototypes but for end use functional parts, there are a few disadvantages due to the porous quality of the final product. Remember, there are many SLS rapid prototyping service providers, but you need to choose one that provides excellent SLS rapid prototyping services at very economical prices.
