Production of polybutylene terephthalate glass composite powders and characterization for processing in selective laser sintering

Additive manufacturing techniques, such as selective laser melting of plastics, generate components directly from a CAD data set without using a specific mould. The range of materials commercially available for selective laser sintering merely includes some semi crystalline polymers, mainly polyamides. In this contribution a recently proposed process route (grinding and rounding) which allows for production of spherical polymer micro particles is applied to glass-filled polybutylene terephthalate. Composite powders of good flowability are obtained. Process relevant material characteristics like powder flowability and thermal properties are investigated. The influence of filler content on grinding behavior and resulting materials properties is discussed.