Application of response surface methodology to analyze the effect of selective laser sintering parameters on dimensional accuracy

This paper investigates the dimensional accuracy of selective laser sintered parts considering the effect of different process parameters, while processing duraform polyamide as the work material. The correlation between different process parameters and dimensional accuracy (performance measures) was established by developing mathematical models. The correlation coefficients (R² = 0.860288), approximately close to 0.9, showed that the generated models are reliable and effectively predict the response within the domain of the selected process parameters. Analysis of variance was employed to check the adequacy of the developed models and also to determine the significance of the parameters. It was observed that dimensional accuracy increases with the increase in laser power, bed temperature and scan count. Scan spacing is found to be the most significant parameter; dimensional accuracy decreases with the increase in scan spacing. Optimization has been carried out with the use of response surface methodology and a desirable functional approach. Subsequently, the optimized parts were obtained and presented.