Effects of Spherical Fillers on the Processability and Mechanical Properties of PA613 and PP-Based Laser Sintering Dry Blends

Polymer materials filled with particles may show substantially altered mechanical properties. Therefore, it is an important aim to be able to tailor the mechanical properties of LS components by adding fillers and thus to create new application areas for additively manufactured components. In this work, the influences of spherical fillers on the processing properties and the resulting mechanical properties of laser-sintered components are investigated. For this purpose, micro glass spheres, hollow glass bubbles and mineral spheres are dry blended to the matrix polymers polyamide 613 and polypropylene with filling ratios of 20 and 40 vol%. First, relevant properties of the blends, such as powder flowability, thermal behavior and melt viscosity, are investigated. Based on the results, processing parameters are then developed for the laser sintering (LS) process and the mechanical properties of the components are investigated.Mechanical Engineerin