Selective laser sintering of polyamide12 composites

This work aims to study the reinforcing effect of short carbon fiber (CF)/polyamide12 and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs)/polyamide12 composites. The influences of reinforcing fillings to the processing and character of composite powder are also studied. The experimental results show that the composite powders of HNTs/PA12 exhibited a higher recrystallization temperature and crystallinity than virgin PA12 powder, which revealed a narrower process window and a higher powder bed temperature to avoid warpage; On the contrary, the composite powders of HNTs/PA12 shows a better thermal conductivity and a lower starting melt temperature, which caused a lower powder bed temperature to avoid agglomeration between the powders. As for the reinforcing effect, the tensile strength CF/PA12 composite is higher than HNTs/PA12. That is because the nano- fillers cannot be uniformly dispersed in the PA12 matrix, which instantaneously induced the significant enhancements in tensile strength and tensile modulus.