Abstract
PA3200 is a material developed by EOS GmbH and is a mixture of PA2200 polyamide powder and glass beads. PA3200 is used to produce sintered parts via a rapid prototyping process known as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) or simply Laser Sintering (LS). This thesis reports on an experimental investigation based upon a commercially available LS machine (a Sinterstation 2500 HiQ from 3D Systems Inc) into how heat and the glass content affect the material. The main aim of the research was to determine the ranges of process parameters and ratios of glass/polyamide and used/virgin materials needed to produce good quality parts, i.e. parts that are dense and geometrically accurate and do not display a rough orange-peel-like surface.