Abstract
Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) has evolved from a rapid prototyping technique to a promising additive manufacturing technique and sintered parts in polyamide (PA12) are increasingly being used for functional applications in the automotive, aerospace and biomedical industries. Even though the mechanical properties of sintered material are of significant importance, very little has been reported in literature on the fatigue properties of sintered components in polyamide and accurate fatigue life predictions are, therefore, not possible. The objective of this work is to analyse the fatigue properties and acting failure mechanisms of notched and unnotched polyamide specimens produced by selective laser sintering and to compare these results with data from similar specimens produced by injection moulding.
KEYWORDS – fatigue, polyamide, selective laser sintering, additive manufacturing