Nylon is a tough and semi-flexible material that offers high impact and abrasion resistance. It is an ideal choice for printing durable parts, especially threaded fasteners. We newly update the packaging for small nylon pieces like these: a nylon cage! It's seamless, printed together with the parts. You can just open it using scissors.
Solution
Step 1: The powder bin and the build area are first heated just below the melting temperature of the polymer and a recoating blade spreads a thin layer of powder over the build platform.
Step 2: A CO2 laser then scans the contour of the next layer and selectively sinters (fuses together) the particles of the polymer powder. The entire cross-section of the component is scanned, so the part is built solid.
Step 3: When the layer is complete, the build platform moves downwards and the blade re-coats the surface. The process then repeats until the whole part is complete.