Accepted Manuscript

Surface quality improvement of selective laser sintered polyamide

12 by precision grinding and magnetic field-assisted finishing

Guo Jiang, Bai Jiaming, Liu Kui, Wei Jun

PII: S0264-1275(17)30975-9
DOI: doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2017.10.048
Reference: JMADE 3446
To appear in: Materials & Design
Received date: 6 June 2017
Revised date: 13 October 2017
Accepted date: 14 October 2017

Please cite this article as: Guo Jiang, Bai Jiaming, Liu Kui, Wei Jun , Surface quality
improvement of selective laser sintered polyamide 12 by precision grinding and magnetic
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affiliation for all authors. Please check if appropriate. Jmade(2017), doi:10.1016/
j.matdes.2017.10.048

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 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Surface quality improvement of selective laser sintered polyamide

12 by precision grinding and magnetic field-assisted finishing

Guo Jiang1, Bai Jiaming1,2 *, Liu Kui1, Wei Jun1

1. Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, 73 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637662,

Singapore

2. Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, South University of Science and Technology

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of China (SUSTC), No. 1088, Xueyuan Road, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518055, China

Corresponding author: *jiaming_bai@hotmail.com

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Abstract

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Surface quality is essential for additive manufacture components due to the growing
demand in the various industries sections. This paper presents an experimental and
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analytical study on post-processing of selective laser sintered PA12, aiming at improving
the surface quality and clarifying interrelations between surface quality and process
parameters. The effects of post-processes on surface and subsurface characteristics
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regarding material removal, surface morphology and roughness, hardness, tribology

performance were quantitatively evaluated. The results show that after post-processing, the
surface roughness of the PA12 components were reduced obviously from over 15 µm Ra to
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2.85 µm Ra and 0.89 µm Ra by precision grinding and magnetic field-assisted finishing

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(MFAF), respectively. The un-melted powder surface layer caused was effectively removed
although the surface hardness was slightly reduced. The MFAF processed surface showed
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a better tribology performance represented by lower coefficient of fiction and higher wear
resistance. Moreover, the results of laser Raman analysis and X-ray photoelectron
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spectroscopy (XPS) indicated that there were no obvious chemical changes induced on the
sub-surface level within 10 µm by the post-processes.
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Keywords：polyamide 12; post-processing; selective laser sintering; surface and

subsurface quality; precision grinding; magnetic field-assisted finishing

1. Introduction

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing, is about building components layer upon layer
to achieve predefined geometry directly [1]. Powder based Additive Manufacturing
processes, such as selective laser sintering (SLS) [2, 3], selective laser melting [4], electron
beam melting [5], laser engineered net shaping [6] have been widely utilised by industries
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and universities, due to its advantages of designing freedom and easier processing on
certain engineering materials, such as Titanium [7], Inconel [8], Polyamides [9]. However,
due to the nature of the powder based layer by layer deposition process, the surface quality
of the final components is poor after the AM processes. This drawback has delayed the well
implementation of the powder based AM technologies in various industry sectors.

To tackle this challenge, attempts have been made to improve the surface quality of the

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powder based AM components in the past years. Several works focus on the optimisation
of the AM processing parameters to achieve improved surface quality [10, 11]. Simchi et al

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[12] investigated the influence of laser power, scanning space/speed and layer thickness on
the surface roughness of laser sintered metallic parts. The surface roughness was

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improved from 12 µm to around 8 µm after post-sintering treatment. Others used various
post-processing techniques [13, 14], such as machining, laser re-melting [15], chemical
etching, electrochemical polishing etc., to improve the surface qualities. Zhang et al [16]
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applied the electrochemical polishing to reduce the surface roughness of selective laser
melted Inconel components, where the roughness was improved from 6.0 µm to 3.7 µm.
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However, the majority of the surface improvement studies for powder based AM focused on
the metallic materials, and very limited research has been done on polymeric materials,
such as Polyamide 12 (PA12 or Nylon 12). PA12 is the dominant polymeric materials for the
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powder based SLS process. It can be used in moulding and tooling industries, where the
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surface quality and tribological behaviour of the components plays a crucial role to
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determine the wear performance and demouding quality. At the moment, the most common
surface treatment for the PA12 components is sand-blasting, which is time and labour
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consuming. The PA12 component also has the surface contamination issues after the
sand-blasting due to the beads added during the blasting process. The surface
contamination not only degrade the surface quality of the AM components, but also affect
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the product qualities in the moulding and tooling applications. To further develop the
application of the SLS technologies in the end-use industry sector, there is an urgent need
to develop and investigate an efficient surface improvement method for the SLS
components.

Precision grinding, as an efficient method for material processing of hard and brittle
materials such as ceramics and glass, has been successfully used in various industries.
Owing to its deterministic material removal and surface finish, it is always used to fabricate
high quality and functional parts with complex geometries [17]. Compared with cutting and
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milling processes, the tool wear is quite limited which can be ignored, and the accuracy and
surface finish obtained by grinding is better. Besides, for soft materials the removed
material adhering to the wheel can be prevented. Magnetic field-assisted finishing (MFAF),
seems to be more suitable for 3D AM parts which have complex geometries as magnetic
abrasives are employed as the flexible tool. The utilization of MFAF allows very complex
geometry to be accessed for workpiece [18, 19]. Compared with other polishing
technologies, MFAF enables better geometry conformant capability for freeform and

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structured surface [20, 21]. The method can improve the surface finish while maintain the
profile of the microstructures. It also exhibits good flexibility in controlling process

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parameters such as magnetic abrasive composition and polishing force, to reach target
user requirements in work tolerances and surface conditions [22].

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This paper presents an experimental and analytical study on the surface and subsurface
characteristics of laser sintered PA12 post-processed by precision grinding and MFAF. The
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surface and subsurface characteristics, including surface morphology and roughness,
material removal, hardness, tribology performance, laser Raman and X-ray photoelectron
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spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, were evaluated. Conclusions were obtained regarding the
machinability of PA12 and interrelations between surface quality and process parameters.
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2. Experimental
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2.1 SLS process

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The near spherical PA12 powders (PA2200) were supplied by EOS (GmbH Germany). With
an average particle size around 58 µm, PA2200 is in the suitable powder size range for the
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SLS process. A SLS system, EOS P395 (EOS GmbH, Germany) with a CO2 laser, was
used to fabricate the PA12 specimens. Processing parameters, namely powder bed
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temperature and laser power, were optimized for the SLS process [23]. For instance, the
powder bed temperature was set as high as possible to the powder’s melting point to
prevent curling during the SLS process. The processing parameters are listed in Table 1.
Block specimens for testing were fabricated with a dimension of 30 x 30 x 15 mm3.

Table 1 SLS processing parameters

Powder bed temperature 172 oC

Laser power 40 W
Laser scan speed 4000 mm/s
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Laser scan space 0.30 mm

Layer thickness 0.12 mm

2.2 Precision grinding and MFAF

As shown in Fig. 1 (a) and (b), with the multi-degree of freedoms (DOF), both of the

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grinding and MFAF processes have the capabilities to process complex geometries. The
precision grinding process was conducted using a precision grinding machine SMART N10
KOMBI (ELB-Schliff Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH, Germany) with a positioning resolution of

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0.1 µm in X-, Y-, and Z-axes. An electroplated diamond wheel with a diameter of 300 mm
and width of 8 mm was adopted to remove materials efficiently. A slot with a depth of 1 mm

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was ground on the surface of specimen. The feed depth, feed rate, and rotational speed of
the wheel were set to 50 µm, 3000 mm/min, and 3000 rpm, respectively. The MFAF utilizes
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magnetic field to control and manipulate polishing media to remove materials from the
surface of specimen. A dual magnetic roller system which was designed in a manner that
exhibits differential magnetic flux densities at various target positions around the rollers,
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enabling a reforming mechanism of the polishing media at each revolution was adopted to
conduct the experiments [24]. The rotation speed of the dual magnetic roller tool was set to
400 rpm and the robot arm fed in 288 mm/min. The gap between the roller and the
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specimen was set to 2.5 mm to lower the polishing force and minimize the contact area.
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The polishing media consist of carbonyl iron powder (CIP), abrasive powder, and a
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disperse medium (oil or water). The average diameter of CIP is 10 µm. For abrasive
powder, Al2O3 with a grain size of 5 µm was adopted. The volume composition was taken at
30.5% CIP CM grade, 8.3% Al2O3 powder, 53.2% lubricating fluid, and 8.0% machining oil.
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The lubricating fluid is used to reduce the fiction between polishing media and specimen so
as to prevent surface damage cause by friction-induced heating. The function of machining
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oil is to bind the CIP and Al2O3 together. During the experiments, lubricating fluid was
replenished in the polishing media at a fixed interval of 5 min and the media were renewed
every 15 min.
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(a)

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(b)
Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of (a) precision grinding and (b) MFAF processes.
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2.3 Characterisation
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An optical microscope (MX51, Olympus Cooperation) and a Scanning Electron Microscopy

(Ultra Plus FESEM, Carl Zeiss) was used to characterize the surface morphology and cross
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sections of the as-printed and post-processed specimens. A laser Raman microscope

(InVia Raman Microscope, Renishaw) was used to identify chemical changes of the sub-
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surface of specimens. A 3D optical non-contact metrology system (Alicona InfiniteFocus,

Alicona Imaging GmbH) was used to examine the results of the hardness and tribology
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test. The surface roughness and material removal of the specimens were evaluated by a
high-resolution contact measurement system (Form Talysurf PGI 2540, Taylor Hobson Ltd).
Several areas were measured for each specimen. The element chemical status of the as-
printed and post-processed specimen surfaces were analysed by XPS using a ESCALAB
250Xi (Thermo Scientific) with an Al Kα X-Ray. The chemical states of the elements on the
surface were analysed by peak deconvolution. Tribometer (UMT-3MT, Centre for Tribology,
Inc. (CETR)) was used to determine the friction and wear properties. The load was 2 N and
the time duration was 10 minutes at frequency of 10 Hz. The stainless ball with a diameter
of 6 mm was used as a counterpart for the test. All tests were performed under the indoor
laboratory conditions (20 - 25oC, 50 - 60% humidity) and each measurement was repeated
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5 times.

3. Results and discussions

3.1 Surface morphology

The surface morphologies of as-printed and post-processed PA12 components are shown
in Figure 2 and 3. As the laser sintered PA12 is translucent to some extent, it is in fact

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observing both of the surface and sub-surface morphologies of the specimens. As shown in
Fig. 2(a), an un-melted powder layer was left on the surface after SLS process. Due to the

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high surface roughness, only a part of the surface can be seen clearly under high
magnification focusing. By MFAF (Fig. 2(b)-(e)), both of the unmelted and half-melt powder

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particles adhere to the surface were removed gradually with time increment and a smooth
surface was obtained. From Fig. 2(f), it is found that the powder layer was removed after
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the precision grinding, and marks caused by the grinding wheel can be clearly seen on the
surface.
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The surfaces were further observed by SEM for more details. As shown in Fig. 3(a), it is
clearly seen that the adhering powder particles and half-melt particles to the surface formed
porous structures on the surface. By precision grinding, the powder layer was removed and
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left by grinding marks. However due to the adhesion property of the material, some debris
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were found on the surface. After MFAF, owing to the removal functions of polishing media,
a smooth surface was obtained, and there was no obvious debris left on the surface. Some
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small pores were noticed on the surface after the MFAF process, which was due to the
porosity of the laser sintered specimens.
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Fig. 2 Optical microscopy of surface morphologies of (a) as-printed, (b) 15 min MFAF, (c)
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30 min MFAF, (d) 45 min MFAF, (e) 60 min MFAF and (f) precision ground surfaces.
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Fig. 3 SEM views of (a) as-printed (b) ground (c) polished (MFAF 60 min) surfaces.

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The cross sections of the specimens were examined to evaluate the subsurface quality
before and after post-processing. Fig. 4(a) (b) and (c) show the measurement result of
cross sectional views of as-printed, ground and polished surfaces, respectively. For the as-
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printed PA12 specimen, the un-melted powder layer can be observed clearly and the
thickness was around 100 µm. This could be explained by the SLS process itself. When the
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last powder layer was melted by the laser, a new layer of powder will be deposited
afterward. As the previous laser scanned layer is still in the melt status, the newly deposited
powder layer could be half-melted and adhered to the previous layer, which results the
coarse surface shown in Fig. 4(a). After the grinding and MFAF process, it can be seen that
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the un-melted powder layer was removed (Fig. 4(b) and (c)). Due to the grinding marks,
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there are still some waviness left on the edge after grinding, while after the MFAF process
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the edge became smoother.

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Fig. 4 Cross sectional views of (a) as-printed, (b) ground, (c) MFAF polished (60 min) PA12
specimen surfaces

3.2 Surface roughness and material removal

To quantitatively evaluate the change of surface quality by post-processing, surface

roughness was measured at several areas on the specimen surfaces. As shown in Fig. 5,
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the results show that after post-processing, the PA12 surface become smooth and the
surface roughness was reduced obviously from over 15 µm Ra to 2.85 µm Ra and 0.89 µm
Ra by precision grinding and MFAF, respectively. Ra is the arithmetic average roughness,
and the most widely used parameter representing surface roughness. The rough initial
surface is due to the powder layer with porous structure formed by the powder particles
adhere to the surface and half-melt particles. Fig. 6 shows the results of surface roughness
change as a function of polishing time by MFAF. The surface roughness was reduced

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dramatically in the first 30 minutes, from the initial value of approximately 16 µm Ra to 2 µm
Ra. Then it gradually changed and finally the value was reduced to 0.9 µm Ra, less than 1

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µm Ra after 30 minutes which is able to meet requirements from industry.

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Corresponding to the results of surface roughness, the material removal was measured
every 15 minutes according to the material property and process capability as shown in Fig.
7. It shows an almost linear relation with polishing time and the material removal rate is
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about 1.1 µm/minute. A material removal of 65 µm was achieved after 60 min polishing. The
material removal was relatively higher in the first 15 min with a significant decrease in
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surface roughness. This indicates that the un-melt and half-melt powder layer with porous
structure was relatively easy to be removed.
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Fig. 5 Surface roughness achieved by different post-processes (average of 5

measurements)
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Fig. 6 Surface roughness and material removal changes as a function of polishing time
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3.3 Surface hardness testing
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Fig 7 and Fig 8 shows the surface hardness tests and results. It can be seen that the
surface hardness for the as-printed PA12 specimen was about 53.5 HBR. After precision
grinding and MFAF, the hardness was reduced to about 50.5 HBR and 49.3 HBR,
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respectively. Fig. 9 shows the results of hardness change as a function of polishing time by
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MFAF. As the increase of the polishing time, the hardness of the laser sintered PA12
decreased slowly. The PA12 specimen polished after 60 minutes had relatively lower
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hardness compared to raw PA12 specimens. The decrease of the surface hardness could
be due to the improvement of the surface roughness, in which the hard un-melted PA12
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particles which hinder the compression or tension were removed gradually. On the other
hand, this surface hardness reduction could correspond to the release of the residual stress
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during the polishing. Due to the severe thermal gradients generated, the laser based
process (such as SLS, selective laser melting) can introduce large residual stress for the
manufactured components [25]. The residual stress generated on the surface of the PA12
components could hinder the growth of the crack, thus lead to the increase of the
compression resistance. Therefore, the release of the residual stress during polishing
resulted the lower surface hardness for the polished specimens.
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(a) (b)

200 m 200 m

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Fig. 7 3D optical metrology of (a) as-printed and (b) polished PA12 after the hardness test
Fig. 3 3D optical metrology of (a) as-printed and (b) polished PA12 after the hardness test.

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Fig. 8 Surface hardness of the PA12 specimens under different post-processing

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Fig. 9 Surface hardness change as a function of polishing time

3.4 Tribology testing

Fig. 10 and Table 2 show the tribology testing results of the as-printed and polished PA12
specimens. Compared to the as-printed specimen, the coefficient of fiction was reduced
around 4% after the polishing process as the surface became smoother. However, it was
noticeable that the ground surface had higher coefficient of friction, which might be due to

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the introduced grinding marks. Through measuring the width of the wear trace by using
Alicona InfiniteFocus, the wear rate was calculated by using the following equation [26]:

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 r 2 
B 1  b  b 2 b2
 

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Wear rate   sin    r   mm / Nm
3
(1)
Ld 180 NU 2r  2 4 

where B is the trace of friction (10 mm), r is the radius of the chromium steel ball (3 mm), b
is the width of the wear trace (mm), L is the load (N) and d is the sliding distance (mm).
After calculation, the wear rate for the laser sintered PA12 before and after polishing was
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4.91 × 10-7 mm3/Nm and 0.92 × 10-7 mm3/Nm respectively, and was reduced by around
81.3%. It indicates that the MFAF processed surface showed a lower coefficient of fiction
and higher wear resistance. On the other hand, due to the grinding marks left, the ground
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specimens showed increased wear rate.

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Fig. 10: Friction coefficient of the as-printed and post-processed PA12 specimens
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Table 2 Wear rate of the as-printed and post-processed PA12 specimens

As-printed Ground MFAF

Friction cofficient 0.329  0.011 0.397  0.015 0.315  0.010

Wear rate (10-7 mm3/N·mm) 4.91  0.58 8.78  0.83 0.92  0.46

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3.5 XPS and laser Raman analysis

Generally, a material can be worn in chemical or/and mechanical ways, and the heating

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generated during the polishing and grinding processes could facilitate the wear process.
The XPS tests were carried out to examine the mechanical-chemical status of the

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specimens. To eliminate the possible adventitious atmospheric contaminations on the
surface, ion sputtering was applied to remove a few nanometers of all sample surfaces.
The XPS results are shown in Fig. 11 and Table 3. According to the XPS results, the
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abovementioned abrasive conditions and grinding did not cause obvious changes to the top
surface (tens of nanometer in depth) of the laser sintered PA12 parts. The ground PA12
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had very close elemental composition to the as-printed PA12, which indicated that the
precision grinding didn’t cause any chemical difference to the PA12 components.
Compared to the as-printed PA12, the surface elemental composition of the MFAF
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processed PA12 was varied, showing a concentration decrease of the C-N bonds and an
increase of the C-C bond, which could be caused by the mechanical/thermal reaction (C-N
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bond breakage) generated during the polishing process. It was reported that after surface
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post processing, some of the C-N bonds of the polyamide surface could be broken, and
recombined with other atoms to form new groups [27].
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60000 XPS C1s

50000

MFAF
40000
Counts

30000

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20000
Ground

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10000 C-C
C=O C-N
As-printed

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0
291
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290
290
289
289
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287
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286
285
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284
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283
283
282
282
281
Binding Energy (eV)
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Fig. 11 XPS spectrums of the laser sintered PA12 before and after post-processing
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Table 3: Elemental composition from XPS for PA12 and theoretical values of PA12

C-C (at%) C-N (at%) C=O (at%)

As-printed 75.76 16.08 8.16
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Ground 75.57 17.35 7.08

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MFAF 84.12 8.21 7.67

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Additionally, laser Raman analysis was also conducted on the as-printed, ground and
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MFAF polished PA12 components to identify any chemical changes to the sub-surface
(around 10 µm in depth) of the laser sintered PA12 components, shown in Fig. 12. The
peak at 1633 cm-1 corresponds to the amide I, which is primarily attributed to the C=O
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stretch [28]. The shifts at 2845 cm-1 and 2881 cm-1 represent the asymmetric and
symmetric stretches of the CH2 group respectively, where the bending and twisting of the
CH2 result in the 1435 cm-1 and 1295 cm-1 Raman shifts [29]. The CC symmetric stretch
accounts for the peaks at 1062 cm-1 and 1108 cm-1. It can be seen that the Raman peaks
across all specimens matched well and there was no peak shift or new peak generated.
This indicates that there were no significant chemical reactions during grinding and
polishing in the sub-surface level, demonstrating the material’s chemical structure was well
maintained after post-processing without contamination.
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Fig. 12 Laser Raman analysis of the laser sintered PA12 before and after post-processing
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Conclusions
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In this paper, the feasibility of post-processing of laser sintered PA12 by precision grinding
and MFAF PA12 were verified. The effects of the processes on surface and subsurface
characteristics regarding material removal, surface morphology and roughness, hardness,
tribology performance as well as surface statues were quantitatively evaluated.
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Based on the results obtained from this research, some conclusions can be drawn as
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follows:
1. After post-processing, the layer of powder particles adhering to the surface and half-
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melt particles were removed and the PA12 surface became smoother. The surface
roughness was reduced obviously from over 15 µm Ra to 2.85 µm Ra and 0.89 µm Ra
by precision grinding and MFAF, respectively.
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2. The surface hardness was reduced slightly after post-processing, from about 53.5 HBR
to 50.5 HBR and 49.3 HBR after precision grinding and MFAF, respectively. The
decrease of the surface hardness could be due to the improvement of the surface
roughness, and the release of the residual stress.
3. The MFAF processed surface showed a better tribology performance which was
represented by lower coefficient of fiction and higher wear resistance as compared to
the as-printed and precision ground surfaces.
4. Raman and XPS analysis showed that there were no obvious chemical changes
induced on the sub-surface level within 10 µm after the post processing processes.
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In comparison, MFAF is more indicated to access complex geometries and achieve better
surface quality while precision grinding provides higher material removal efficiency.
Through effective process combination, high machining efficiency with good surface quality
can be achieved. This study could contribute to the potential hybrid AM process by
integrating the post-processes features into SLS process. Future work will be considered to
conduct SLS parts with complex structures using multi-DOF precision grinding and MFAF

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setups.

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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our thanks to Mr. Tan Aloysius (FTG, SIMTech), Mr. Goh Min Hao

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(MCU, SIMTech), Mr. Ng Seow Tong (MTG, SIMTech) and Ms. Au Ka Hing Candice (MTG,
SIMTech) for their kind assistance. This research is supported by A*STAR Industrial
Additive Manufacturing Program (SERC Grant No.: 132 550 4106) and SIMTech Core-
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funded project (Project No.: C16-M-003).
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Graphical abstract

Un-melted powder layer

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Edge of polished surface
Edge of ground surface
Edge of as-printed surface

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Pores Pores

Debris
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Half melt particles

Removed material,
Grinding marks
Not well cleaned
Powder particles
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As-printed Ground MFAF

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Highlights

1. The surface quality was greatly improved after post-processing.

2. The un-melted powder surface layer caused by selective laser sintering (SLS) was

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effectively removed.

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3. The polished surface showed a better tribology performance.

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4. No obvious chemical changes were induced on the sub-surface level within 10 µm.
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