Density improvement of alumina parts produced through selective laser sintering of alumina-polyamide composite powder

A powder metallurgy (PM) process to fabricate alumina parts through indirect selective laser sintering (SLS) of spherical alumina-polyamide composite powder is presented. The PM process includes powder production, SLS, debinding and furnace sintering. Three different strategies are investigated in order to improve the density of the final alumina parts: laser remelting, warm isostatic pressing (WIP), and different infiltration techniques which use alumina containing suspensions: pressureless infiltration and infiltration under pressure (i.e. squeeze infiltration). Furthermore, microstructural and geometrical changes which occur during the PM process are investigated. (C) 2012 CIRP.