RENDER: Regenerated Laser Sinter Powders

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is the most important thermal fusion additive manufacturing (AM) process utilising lasers to melt layers of metal or polymer powder on to each other and Nylon PA12 base powders occupy 95% of the polymer SLS market. One of the barriers to the adoption of SLS is the process cost and cost of disposal of waste un-sintered powder that's considered a microplastic having the potential to cause environmental harm generally to aquatic living organisms and to accumulate in rivers and soils. AM bureaux are experiencing difficulties in finding landfill sites that will accept this waste. Discarded SLS powder represents a significant cost and approaches to utilise it have focused on the production of fused deposition manufacturing filaments; and although feasible, none are commercially available nor enable a closed manufacturing system. Rapid Powders Ltd has identified and shown the feasibility of a solution to this problem and seeks through grant funding to establish its technical and commercial viability together with its consortium partners Euriscus Ltd and Lancaster University.