An experimental design approach to selective laser sintering of low carbon steel

This paper is an outcome of the application of statistical design of experiments to the process of selective laser sintering (SLS) on low carbon steel powder using pulsed Nd:YAG laser of max. average power 100 W. It is intended to investigate the effects of variation of sintering parameters: layer thickness and hatching distance (side step) on the density, hardness and porosity of the sintered products. Experiments have been done according to second order central composite rotatable design and response surfaces of the outputs are plotted after regression analysis. It has been observed that increasing layer thickness and hatching distance results in an increase in porosity that diminishes the hardness and density. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.