Selective Laser Sintering

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What Does Selective Laser Sintering Mean?

Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing process that is used to build three-dimensional solid prototypes and components, usually of a small scale. It is a rapid prototyping technique that use laser to sinter powder-based materials into solid products and models. It was first conceived by Dr. Carl Deckard at the University of Texas.

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Techopedia Explains Selective Laser Sintering

SLS use a a high-powered laser beam such as a carbon dioxide laser to join together raw materials and create the desired product/model. The material can be plastic, metal, glass or ceramic in a powdered form. The whole process of SLS is additive in nature. The laser beam takes cross section geometrical coordinates detail from a CAD drawing and adds the powder surface accordingly. When the layer is finished, the surface is powdered again and the process is repeated until the model is complete.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology expert

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.