
Figure 11. Reflectance, absorptance and transmittance of
PE powder with 1.0 weight percent graphite in dependency
of different layer thicknesses.
4 CONCLUSIONS
In the paper PE powder is qualified for the LBM pro-
cess by varying the used area energy of the laser beam.
The needed area energy for a homogeneous melting is
almost six times the area energy needed for processing
conventional PA12 powder. Therefore the pure PE was
modified by admixing graphite particles to increase
the absorption of the powder. By admixing graphite
the needed area energy can be reduced towards the
value for processing PA12. Furthermore the optical
material properties of the dif ...