Selective Laser Sintering of Quartz Powder

This research describes the feasibility of fusing quartz powder by Selective Laser Sintering (SLS). SLS is a method of rapid prototyping three-dimensional objects from a computer-aided design database. The effects of different processing parameters, including powder size, laser power and scan mte were explored. Single and multiple layer specimens have been made. The resulting structures were evaluated using SEM and the density of the multiple-layer structure was detected by a geometrical mass/volume technique. It was determined that particle size was the dominant variable affecting part quality. Smaller and spherical unifonn particles are preferred. Future work will concentrate on optimizing powder size and shape and higher laser power.