Talk:Selective laser sintering

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Selective laser sintering article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Engineering Low‑importance

	Engineering portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Engineering, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of engineering on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EngineeringWikipedia:WikiProject EngineeringTemplate:WikiProject EngineeringEngineering articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Metalworking Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Metalworking, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Metalworking on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MetalworkingWikipedia:WikiProject MetalworkingTemplate:WikiProject MetalworkingMetalworking articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Technology

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Technology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.TechnologyWikipedia:WikiProject TechnologyTemplate:WikiProject TechnologyTechnology articles

vacuum[edit]

this laser i believe uses a vacuum because there is no heat dissipation in a vacuum kinda like space ;) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.184.3.60 (talk • contribs) 00:46, July 31, 2007

I don't think either of the two popular commercial systems, the 3D Systems selective laser sintering system or the EOS laser sintering systems, use a vacuum. I think heat dissipation is desirable, to control the size of the spot where the laser hits. When service bureaus are quoting a tolerance of +/- 0.007 inch/inch... --GargoyleMT 12:52, 31 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Of all existing SLS systems, none use vacuum chambers for their build. Some chambers are pressurised, and the use of inert gases are prevalent for saftey. 146.87.52.53 (talk) 00:13, 1 May 2012 (UTC) Anon.[reply]

spam[edit]

I think there's more spam in those links, but I'm too tired now. Addicted2Sanity 00:21, 2 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Green sand[edit]

The link to green sand needs to be disambiguated. Is molding sand what was intended?--Srleffler (talk) 05:46, 28 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Probably, see here: EOS sand sintering (bottom of page)

Difference of Selective Laser Sintering and Selective Laser Melting[edit]

As the title shows , what are the difference between the two manufacturing process ?

60.53.130.163 (talk) 21:20, 28 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

As their names suggest, SLS sinters the material, i.e heating to below the melting point until the particles merge with one another. Whereas SLM melts the material, creating a melt pool in which material is consolidated before cooling to form a solid structure. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.194.84.101 (talk) 05:05, 11 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The word “sintering” is a historical term and a misnomer, as the process typically involves full or partial melting, as opposed to traditional powdered metal sintering using a mold and heat and/or pressure. This is an extract of the standard ASTM F2792. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Saul Pereira (talk • contribs) 11:32, 11 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Material Properties[edit]

Part of the use of the technology is adding a listing of the materials. I know of a source for a compiled list but not sure the best way to add it. Without material, the technology is useless Hunterp46 (talk) 17:52, 15 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Right now the article does list: "...SLS can produce parts from a relatively wide range of commercially available powder materials, including polymers (nylon, also glass-filled or with other fillers, and polystyrene), metals (steel, titanium, alloy mixtures, and composites) and green sand." If you would like to expounded upon that feel free. Wizard191 (talk) 18:53, 15 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I just spent a few mins reworking that paragraph and while I didn't change any substance, I was tempted to, does anyone know that polystyrene is used in SLS? Jim Mikulak (talk) 16:11, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

@Hunterp could you give me a link to your source I'd like to look at it. Jim Mikulak (talk) 16:11, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just doing a quick search for polystyrene and sls gave me this: [1]. Wizard191 (talk) 20:57, 27 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to make a general comment in the laser sintering section. SLS, DMLS, SLM are registered trademarks. SLS is a registered trademark of 3D Systems. DMLS is a registered trademark of EOS GmbH. SLM is a registered trademark of SLM Solutions and Realizer and possibly Renishaw. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.60.230.22 (talk) 03:12, 12 September 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure about how relevant it is now, but I do happen to know some companies that have EOS printer systems which utilize SLS as production method. Seems a bit contradictive if they were registered trademarks, but I'm not 100% sure about how this usually works. So I'm just stating it for what its worth 195.109.63.17 (talk) 14:42, 29 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

merge[edit]

As far as I can tell from the descriptions in the Wikipedia articles, selective laser sintering and direct metal laser sintering sound identical, and Selective Laser melting sounds like a relatively minor variation. Is there some significant different between them (that should be added to the articles), or are they truly synonyms and therefore all three articles should be merged into one article?? --68.0.124.33 (talk) 06:14, 17 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Do not merge DMLS - Per this book, it states that SLS and DMLS are two different processes. Wizard191 (talk) 18:33, 17 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for pointing that out.

I see now that Narayanan's book (p. 259-260) says that the difference is that SLS, unlike DMLS, needs to have the polymer binder removed (post sintering) and infiltrated with other metals.

Since the current Wikipedia selective laser sintering article makes no mention of these two steps in the SLS process, it seems to me that either the Wikipedia SLS article is woefully lacking in detail, or else possibly the "SLS" in that book is something different (or perhaps more narrowly defined) than the "SLS" as defined by the Wikipedia article, and perhaps that Narayanan's SLS needs its own independent Wikipedia article.

Is Narayanan's "SLS" -- which involves removing the polymer binder and infiltrating with other metals -- already described in any Wikipedia article, perhaps under some other name?

Are the processes currently described by Wikipedia's "SLS" -- some or all of which omit those steps -- categorized under some other name by experts?

--68.0.124.33 (talk) 02:08, 19 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think you bring up a lot of good points here. Right now most, if not all, of the rapid prototyping articles are a mess with missing information and/or inaccuracies. I just found that book doing a quick GB search, however, I'm not 100% sure that's how SLS and DMLS are always defined. I saw another book at GB that gave an umbrella term for all of the articles you are looking to merge, but I don't remember what it was, plus I had never heard the term prior, so it may be something that the author made up. Either way, all of this needs more research to get to the bottom of it. Wizard191 (talk) 21:14, 19 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

After my own little research, I feel like SLS only uses powder bed method while DMLS uses powder deposition method. According to this Youtube video [2], powder deposition method dispenses material powder directly from above and laser melts the powder instantly after they come out. 128.237.206.176 (talk) 16:31, 20 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I think the process you are referring to is actually called laser engineered net shaping (LENS), and it has its own separate page. My guess is that the term used on this page is more precisely correct than laser sintering, but it I think selective laser sintering is the more widely used industry term. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AutoNoOpenMined (talk • contribs) 06:45, 8 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

There is an ASTM standard (ASTM F2792-12) that defines the "Standard Terminology forAdditive Manufacturing Technologies". In this standard, DMLS & SLS are both defined as LS (Laser Sintering) technologies. The only difference it states is that DMLS "term denotes metal-based laser sintering systems from EOS GmbH - Electro Optical Systems" and SLS "denotes the LS process and machines from 3D Systems Corporation". LS on it's own is defined as "a powder bed fusion process used to produce objects from powdered materials using one or more lasers to selectively fuse or melt the particles at the surface, layer by layer, in an enclosed chamber." As well, the word “sintering” is a historical term and a misnomer, as the process typically involves full or partial melting, as opposed to traditional powdered metal sintering using a mold and heat and/or pressure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Saul Pereira (talk • contribs) 11:26, 11 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

These are completely different processes...they are similar but are very much not the same...merging these topics will result in fallacies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.70.49.164 (talk) 14:56, 12 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

First metal gun printed using SLS[edit]

http://www.solidconcepts.com/news-releases/worlds-first-3d-printed-metal-gun-manufactured-solid-concepts/ -- Wesha (talk) 21:50, 7 November 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Merge 2[edit]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

No merge. -- P 1 9 9 ✉ 20:30, 15 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Based on the foregoing merge discussion, I propose to merge Direct metal laser sintering, Selective laser sintering and Selective laser melting into a new article Laser sintering, since all 3 are just a subset of each other. There already is a lot of overlap and 1 article can simply and clearly explain the small differences between them. -- P 1 9 9 ✉ 15:33, 10 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Are you going to do it?
Are you confident that you can produce a readable article at the end of it?

I see your point. This is one of those cases where there is a lot of commonality to the reader's prior understanding of the process, even though there is no overlap between any of the four processes (as I also see ceramic and plastic sintering as distinct, owing to the wavelengths and energy involved). We can explain this best in a single overall article.

My concern is the poor quality of WP articles when such merges are carried out. The number of articles where Randy from Canada simply threw content together because "sintering is a bit like melting" is already unfortunately large. We should not do that here; these are distinct processes. There's also the problem that WP coverage on 3D printing is already quite bad, with poor technical content, spamming of self-promotional trivia and a bunch of edit warring by the WP-smart and 3D-ignorant. It's a mess already and I hope you're up for improving it, but I'd hate to see (as is always a risk) it get worse. Andy Dingley (talk) 16:18, 25 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Poorly chosen picture?[edit]

The picture at the top of the page could be any machine. There really isn't anything distinctive about it. Perhaps a picture of laser sintering being performed would be more relevant. 174.71.69.160 (talk) 01:51, 28 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

broken link[edit]

1st reference link seems broken — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.79.204.186 (talk) 17:32, 19 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The italian translation of Selective laser sintering english page links to "Sostituto osseo" ("bone substitute") which does not have anything in common with sls technologies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.44.242.107 (talk) 09:08, 2 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Metal vs. polymer (polyamide/nylon)[edit]

There seems to be confusion as to what materials are used for SLS vs DMLS. As far as I can tell, the current usage in the industry is that SLS is for polymers processed near their melting point whereas DMLS is metal in inert gas far from their melting point (printed with "tie-down" supports). A quick Google search brings up these links for SLS:

Note that none of these have anything to do with metal. Also, here's a taxonomy of 3D printing from 3D Hubs that shows SLS as plastic and DMLS/SLM as metal [3]. —Ben FrantzDale (talk) 13:10, 6 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Looking around a bit more, the only place I can find recent mention of SLS implying metal is here where it says

"SLS technology uses a laser to harden and bond small grains of plastic, ceramic, glass, metal (we talk in a different article about direct metal sintering), or other materials into layers in a 3D dimensional structure."

This reads very similar to the opening sentence of the Technology section of this article:

"An additive manufacturing layer technology, SLS involves the use of a high power laser (for example, a carbon dioxide laser) to fuse small particles of plastic, metal, ceramic, or glass powders into a mass that has a desired three-dimensional shape."

However, on the 3D Systems website, I can't find any specific mention of SLSing metal. The closest I could find anywhere is here where it talks of binder-coated metal powder SLSed, then sintered in an oven and infiltrated with liquid metal:

"A metal part is made using the SLS process. First, an SLS machine is run using a powdered mixture of metal and binder to create a "green part". Next, the part is placed into a furnace where the binder will be burned out. Simultaneously, bronze bars placed adjacent to the part will melt and be wicked into the part, "infiltrating" the empty spaces left by the burnt-out binder. In the past, Dave Bourell has conducted research on the infiltration process."

I couldn't find a commercial instance of a binder-coated metals like this. —Ben FrantzDale (talk) 13:37, 6 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

separating Materials and Applications[edit]

I believe these two sections should be separate and independent from each other; as they are, for example, in the DMLS page. I realize these might have originally been written together since the sections are not very developed so I plan to expand on polymer materials. --Mendoza.755 (talk) 02:20, 19 February 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I've separated the two sections and added some more to each. Applications is still lacking in content and structure. Mendoza.755 (talk) 00:52, 8 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]