Fatigue behaviour of Polyamide 12 processed by Selective Laser Sintering

Abstract

In this doctoral thesis, the fatigue behavior of polyamide 12 manufactured by selective laser sintering (SLS) is studied and compared with the same material processed by injection moulding (IM). An extensive experimental program has been carried out, providing relevant data on the behaviour of this material to evaluate the structural integrity of the parts processed using additive manufacturing techniques. Since in these techniques the manufacturing process is carried out by layer-by-layer deposition, the resulting parts are susceptible to exhibit a transversely isotropic behaviour. That is the reason why the mechanical and fatigue characterizations were performed applying the force parallel and perpendicular to the layered structure...