Abstract: Preheating powder on the surface of powder bed is a one important process influencing whole processing of prototypes and accuracy of parts fabricated in selective laser sintering technology. General preheating process of irradiator for the preheating of powder on the surface of powder bed is analyzed, and the influences of flux density on the temperature field on the top surface of powder bed is investigated. The distribution models of flux density are also presented in this paper. The result predicted according to the model is reasonably consistent with experimental result. This model plays an important role in design of preheating set and control of SLS processing.

Key words: Model, Rapid prototyping, Selective laser sintering