Recycling PA12 powder from laser powder bed fusion through producing filament for fused deposition modelling

Abstract

The laser-powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process presents advantages over other polymer additive manufacturing processes in terms of part strength and high production rate possible with the technology. The high cost and limited re-use of nylon powder used in the process however limit the large-scale adoption of the technology in industry. This paper investigated the re-use of PA12 powder that is no longer suitable for the L-PBF process through producing filament for the fused deposition modelling (FDM) process. Results from the study showed that parts with good mechanical strength and reasonable dimensional accuracy can be produced using FDM.