Electrical Resistance Metrology in Nanoparticle Sintering Simulations

Abstract

Microscale Selective Laser Sintering is an Additive Manufacturing process which involves the creation of parts using nanoparticles, precision substrate motion control, and an optical setup aimed at achieving sub-micron resolution on the printed parts. In order to drive the Microscale Selective Laser Sintering process towards this proposed goal, it is important to understand the kinetics of nanoparticle sintering to be able to make predictions of the properties that can be expected from the manufacturing process. To this end, Phase Field Modelling simulations have been built which model how nanoparticles sinter together when heated. In the past these simulations have yielded measurements such as the densification in the powder bed as a function of temperature and time, however it is extremely difficult to measure the density of parts built from the microscale Selective Laser Sintering system. Electrical resistance is a much more easily quantified property. As such, in order to fully validate these nanoparticle sintering simulations, it is necessary to measure the electrical resistance in the simulation bed and compare these resistance curves against experimentally derived electrical resistance measurements. This paper presents the approach used to extract electrical resistance data from the simulations as well as preliminary resistance results collated from this study.