Influence of Particle Size on the Mechanical Performance and Sintering Quality of Peanut Husk Powder/PES Composites Fabricated through Selective Laser Sintering.

This study intends to enhance the mechanical strength of wood-plastic composite selective laser sintering (SLS) parts by using a sustainable composite, peanut husk powder (PHP)/poly ether sulfone (PES) (PHPC). The study aims to address agricultural waste pollution by encouraging the eco-friendly utilization of such waste in SLS technology. To ensure the sintering quality and mechanical properties and prevent deformation and warping during sintering, the thermo-physical properties of PHP and PES powders were analyzed to determine a suitable preheating temperature for PHPC. Single-layer sintering tests were conducted to assess the formability of PHPC specimens with varying PHP particle sizes. The study showed the effects of different PHP particle sizes on the mechanical performance of PHPC parts. The evaluation covered various aspects of PHPC SLS parts, including mechanical strength, density, residual ash content, dimensional accuracy (DA), and surface roughness, with different PHP particle sizes. The mechanical analysis showed that PHPC parts made from PHP particles of ≤0.125 mm were the strongest. Specifically, the density bending strength, residual ash content, tensile, and impact strength were measured as 1.1825 g/cm3, 14.1 MPa, 1.2%, 6.076 MPa, and 2.12 kJ/cm2, respectively. Notably, these parameters showed significant improvement after the wax infiltration treatment. SEM was used to examine the PHP and PES powder particles, PHPC specimen microstructure, and PHPC SLS parts before and after the mechanical tests and waxing. Consequently, SEM analysis wholly confirmed the mechanical test results.

Selective Laser Sintering Parameter Optimization of Prosopis Chilensis/Polyethersulfone Composite Fabricated by AFS-360 SLS.

The current available selective laser sintering (SLS) materials are often high in cost and limited in variety; the mechanical properties of wood-composite SLS parts are low quality, which restricts the development of SLS technology. This article aims to optimize the SLS processing parameters to enhance the mechanical properties of the Prosopis chilensis powder (PCP)/polyethersulfone (PES) composite (PCPC) part fabricated via SLS. The PCP and PES powder were proposed as the feedstock of the PCPC powder bed for SLS. First, the thermal decomposition and glass transition temperatures (Tg) of PCP and PES powder were estimated to reduce the produced PCPC parts from warping and deformation during SLS. An orthogonal experimental methodology with five factors and four levels was used to optimize the SLS parameters for the PCPC SLS test. The scanning speed, preheating temperature, and laser power are selected as the main affecting factors on this study. The influence of these factors on dimension accuracies, bending and tensile strengths, and surface roughness quality of the produced PCPC parts was studied. The PCPC particle distribution and microstructure were inspected via scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, the synthesis weighted scoring methods were utilized to determine the optimal SLS processing parameters of the produced PCPC parts. The combined results of tests showed that the optimal SLS parameters were as follows: the scanning speed is 1.8 m/s, preheating temperature is 80°C, and the laser power is 12 W. Thus, the quality of PCPC SLS parts was significantly enhanced when the optimal parameters were utilized in the SLS process. This article provided the main reference values of SLS parameters of the PCPC. To further enhance the surface roughness quality and mechanical strengths, the postprocessing infiltration with wax was introduced; after wax infiltration, the surface roughness and mechanical strengths were significantly improved.