Chess-like Pieces Realized by Selective Laser Sintering of PA12 Powder: 3D Printing and Micro-Tomographic Assessment

The paper highlights the realization of 3D-printed parts with complex geometries, such as chess-like pieces, using polyamide 12 (PA12) as polymeric powder via selective laser sintering (SLS). The research activity focuses on the study of the powder printability, the optimization of the printing parameters, and the tomographic evaluation of the printed objects. Morphological analyses were carried out to study the PA12 powder microstructure considering that SLS required specific particle size distribution and shape, able to guarantee a good flowability necessary to take part in a sintering process. DSC and TG analyses were performed to determine the sintering window and the crystallinity degree, and to evaluate the thermal stability of the PA12 powder due to the importance of the powder processability for the SLS process. The novelty lies in the realization of chess-like pieces very challenging to print via SLS due to their different and highly detailed structures, and the in-depth analysis of the dimensional accuracy evaluated by micro-tomography. The 3D-printed samples obtained show high printing quality and dimensional stability. The μ-CT analysis also confirms the key role of the object shape and section changes on the final porosity of the chess-like pieces.