New model for shrinkage compensation in selective laser sintering

This paper presents a new model for shrinkage and a new approach for shrinkage compensation to enhance the accuracy of parts produced by selective laser sintering (SLS) - a solid freeform fabrication process. The present prevailing approach as proposed by machine manufacturers is simple but not accurate. A new shrinkage model which accounts for part geometry as well as beam offset is proposed in this work. A new compensation scheme which accounts for nonlinear shrinkage is proposed, implemented and validated. The proposed compensation scheme compensates for shrinkage at every layer and at every hatch length, unlike a uniform compensation scheme applied to entire part. A new algorithm which accounts for this is developed and implemented. Experiments carried out with the new shrinkage model as well as with the new compensation scheme have shown significant improvement in the accuracy of the parts produced which establishes the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.