Preliminary Study for Transparentization of SLS Parts by Resin Infiltration

Since opacity of SLS processed parts are derived from random reflection and refraction at boundaries of refractive indices between the air and plastic, infiltration of resin that shares the same index with the plastic can increase transparency of the parts. In this paper, desirable characteristics for the infiltrant were investigated first, and transparentization test of SLS processed parts out of CastFormTM was carried out. The highest transmittance of 80% and the lowest haze of 55% were obtained. However, exact match of refractive indices of powder for SLS and infiltrant did not give the best transparency. The reasons were considered in discussions.