Development of a polymer alloy of polystyrene (PS) and polyamide (PA) for building functional part based on selective laser sintering (SLS)

Abstract Polystyrene (PS) powder materials may be directly used for selective laser sintering (SLS). The part sintered with PS has high dimension precision, but its tensile strength is very low, only 5-6 MPa, and its solvent resistance capability is not good, which cannot meet the demands of the functional parts. The part sintered with polyamide (PA) has high mechanical properties and excellent resistance capability, so PA is suitable for building functional parts. However, the precision of the SLS part sintered with PA is low crystallinity. Also, PA's price is very high (relative to PS powder). Colligating the properties of the two materials, PS and PA, a polymer alloy of PS and PA for building functional parts is developped. Using this alloy as the sintering material, some parts are sintered successfully and the tensile strength of the parts increases to about 14 MPa, which can meet the demands of some functional parts.