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Country of origin: Germany

Summary

Totally and partially embedded skeletons, honeycombs, and other structures are to be developed and realized for the mechanical and thermal stabilization of laser micro sintered tools. The structures are to be generated during the selective laser sintering process from the genuine sintering material. Functionalities of the sinter products (form metals, oxide ceramics, cermets) are to be improved thus by targeted increase of directional stabilities. Partners are sought for an EUROSTARS project.

Full description

Laser micro sintering is a modification of selective laser sintering that has proved applicable for additive fabrication of micro structured components. Though already sporadically applied for the generation of functional parts, the lower stability of the sintered compound compared to massive material has not yet completely been overcome.
In the cast of parts from injection moulding processes, as a comparison, well established technologies for reinforcement are embedment of plies and skeletons as well as structuring of the bulk in the form of scaffolds and honeycombs in order to influence the static and dynamic properties as e.g. various mechanical resistibilities and thermal expansion.
In selective laser sintering material switching during the generation of a body can be achieved only with high effort and with a relatively poor resolution. The integration of supporting structures from secondary materials during laser sintering is currently no option for the enforcement or stabilization of a fabricated tool. Additionally, in selective laser sintering material change is only feasible in the vertical direction, meaning that by material switching merely the partition of the sintered body into horizontal material zones can be effected.
For this cause directional enforcement of laser sintered bodies is attained mainly by generating the interior of a body, not with a homogeneous compound, but with a densely sintered skeleton or honey comb like structures, though with the genuine sintering material. Due to the typical features of the process, closed hollows will remain filled with powder.
Additionally, especially in laser micro sintering, it is a suitable strategy to embed the mentioned skeleton or honeycomb structures, distinguished from the rest of the material by their high density, into a space filling more porous compound, since it is presently still an unsolved problem to generate homogeneously dense structures with large undercut angles with this technology.
The project aims to apply the results of the research and development in order to improve the functional properties of laser micro sintered components and tools e.g. micro parts for mechanical devices, miniature and micro prostheses or implants as well as micro reactors.
The choice of materials will be mainly metals, oxide ceramics (alumina, silica) and cermets.

Partner expertise sought:

Partners are sought in the following functions:
- Industrial partners interested in fabrication or application of micro mechanical components, micro fluidic systems, miniature and micro-structured prostheses and implants
- Industrial partners interested

Listed under: Materials Technology \ Other Industrial Technologies \ Physical and Exact Sciences \ Engineering \ Metals and metal products

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