Thermal Modeling of Laser Powder Bed Fusion during Printing on Temperature-Unstable Materials Considering Local Sintering

The integration of local metal structures into polymer components using Laser Powder Bed Fusion (PBF-LB/M) offers great potential regarding multifunctional lightweight structures. However, such process hybridization involves huge challenges. In order to reduce the temperature input into the less temperature-resistant materials, the use of lower laser powers in the interfacial region is essential. The resulting local sintering of the metal powder affects the thermal properties in the interfacial region, leading to a change in heat dissipation in the temperature-unstable material. A modeling approach oriented to selective laser sintering is presented for predicting the degree of sintering and associated thermal properties in the context of PBF-LB/M process simulation.