| The objective of this work is to determine the effects of the polymer molecular structure on the sintering process. An experimental study on polymer sintering has been conducted in conjunction with an extensive characterization of the resins used in this work. A combination of rheological, thermal, and spectroscopic techniques was found to be effective in determining the molecular characteristics of the resins.; Sintering experiments were conducted under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions using both powder and cylindrical particles. It was found that the trends observed for the sintering of powder were consistent with the predictions of Newtonian sintering models. Sintering results obtained using cylindrical particles, however, showed significant differences not seen when using powder particles. These were attributed to the differences in the surface area between the two types of particles. It is speculated that the effect of material properties other than viscosity and elasticity are enhanced when cylindrical particles are used. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
