Dual Beam Laser Sintering - new approach to waste-free 3D printing

Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) is an Additive Manufacturing technique in which a laser sinters polymer powders such as polyamide 12 (PA12). A major limitation is thermal ageing of the feedstock caused by continuous preheating, which limits material reusability. Typically, only about 10% of the powder is processed into parts, while the remainder must be refreshed with virgin material or restored through additional postprocessing techniques. Dual Beam Laser Sintering (DBLS) is an alternative approach that uses two lasers - one for preheating and one for sintering - eliminating the need for external heaters and allowing processing at room temperature. Previous works have shown that unused powder in DBLS can be directly reused in closed-loop due to minimal thermal ageing. In this work, we present a new galvoscanner-based DBLS system that enables faster sintering, in-situ temperature monitoring, and improved beam steering, supporting higher part quality and greater process sustainability.