While all additive manufacturing (AM) processes share the ability to create multifaceted parts with intricate features, each system has its own design guidelines to ensure accuracy and optimize part design for the build process and compatible materials. These design guidelines are usually filed under trade secrets for each manufacturer, which can leave the average design engineer adrift on a sea of 3D printing challenges.
Through years of trial and error, Stratasys Direct Manufacturing has gathered the most efficient design guidelines for one of the most secretive 3D printing technologies: Laser Sintering. This article details a study undertaken by Stratasys Direct Manufacturing and student’s from the University of Texas (UT) at Austin which vetted the tolerances for some of the most challenging LS design features such as minimum wall thickness, optimal build orientation for small to large features, and feature distances and areas in relation to part walls.
Our goal is to make the information collected within the UT study well-known to the average design engineer and present working expectations for what LS can do, and therefore minimize errors and achieve consistently successful LS parts. Download the white paper now to learn more about the currated data.
