Powder quality and electrical conductivity of selective laser sintered polymer composite components

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is a powder-based additive manufacture technology that uses energy provided by the laser to melt and fuse the powders and then stack layer by layer to form a printed part based on 3D model data. The powder quality significantly affects the performance of SLS sintered parts and thus the powder design and preparation is the core technology for SLS. This chapter introduces the powder sintering fundamental for SLS, as well as the intrinsic and extrinsic properties of polymer powders and their effects on the properties of sintered parts. The research on the electric conductive composite powders for SLS was mainly reviewed. The effect of powder preparation methods, fillers and polymers type on the formation of conductive segregation networks was discussed.