Abstract
Keywords: Rapid Prototyping, Laser Sintering, Metal Powder
From the available literature it is established that the selective laser sintering is a modern and special rapid prototyping process. Rapid prototyping (RP) methods are developing quickly and there are millions of RP models produced worldwide.
A lot of parameters influence the laser sintered bond. Many of these have not been investigated yet therefore we can only infer the processes occurring during the laser sintering. Because of the insufficiencies we are able only to deduce the processes during the laser sintering process.
The laser sintered rapid prototyping model can be used for design purposes but also to create functional prototypes. For the demonstration model the geometrical properties are important, but at a functional prototype the focus is on the mechanical properties. In the literature there are data about the laser beam scanning speed, the layer thickness, the laser power etc., but there are no data about their optimisation for the mechanical properties.