Polyamide (PA)
Being a
solid material, the powder has the attractive feature of
being self-supporting for the generated product sections.
This makes supports (typical for stereolithography)
redundant. The polyamide material allows the production of
fully functional prototypes with high mechanical and thermal
resistance.
Polyamide SLS parts have an excellent long-term stability
and are resistant against most chemicals. They can be made
watertight by impregnation. The PA material used by Materialise is
certified as biocompatible, foodsafe and not harmful to
health or the environment.
Glass filled polyamide (PA-GF)
The use of PA powder filled with glass particles (PA-GF) has a much higher thermal resistance and is typically used in functional tests with high thermal loads.
Alumide
Alumide
is a blend of aluminium powders and PA powder, which allows
metallic-looking, non-porous components to be machined
easily and is resistant to high temperatures. A typical
application for Alumide is the manufacture of stiff parts of
metallic appearance for applications in automotive
manufacture (e.g. wind tunnel tests or parts that are not
safety relevant), for small production runs, for
illustrative models (metallic appearance), for education and
jig manufacture, among other aspects.
SLS: Technical specifications
Standard lead time:
Minimum of 4
working days, depending on part size, number
of components and finishing degrees.
Minimum of 2 working days for smaller parts.
Standard accuracy:
± 0.25% (with a minimum of ± 0.2 mm)
Minimum wall thickness:
1 mm, but living hinges are possible at 0.3 mm
Maximum part dimensions:
Dimensions are unlimited as components may be composed of several sub-parts. The build area of the largest machine is 700x380x580mm.
Surface structure:
SLS parts typically have a grainy surface but all kinds of (very) fine finishing are possible. They can be sandblasted, coloured (impregnated), painted, covered, coated, …