POWDER BED FUSION

 

POWDER BED FUSION

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SLS_schematic.svg

File:SLS schematic.svg - Wikimedia Commons

POWDER BED FUSION

Powder bed fusion (PBF) is a 3D printing technique where raw material in powder form is available in the bed of the machine. The powder particles are melt and fused together selectively when high energy beam in the form of laser or electron beam is exposed to the powder bed. All PBF techniques use the spreading of powder layer ( approx. 0.1 mm) over the previous layers to build the 3D part.  As shown in the above picture that roller is used to spread the layer of power material from the powder delivery system. Laser or electron beam will focus selectively in the regions of powder bed resulting in the part fabrication. Laser beam is shown in the picture where powder particle are fusing together. There are different variants of the Powder Bed Fusion process, these variations are shown below;

• Selective laser sintering (SLS)
• Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) 
• Electron beam melting (EBM) 
• Selective heat sintering (SHS) 
• Selective laser melting (SLM) 

Video of the SLS process;