Selective Heat Sintering, SHS

In SHS manufacturing, powdered material [1] is heated to just below its melting point and then spread out into an even layer over the building platform [2] using a roller [3]. A thermal print head [4] moves across the platform and melts a cross section of the CAD model in the powder, which causes the powder particles to adhere to each other by sintering. The building platform is then lowered down corresponding to a layer thickness.

The process is repeated until the model is completed. Non sintered powder material can be reused and unlike many other additive manufacturing methods, very little finishing work is required.

SHS is very similar to laser-sintering-sls">Selective Laser Sintering, SLS, but it uses a thermal print head instead of a laser for sintering which makes this process cheaper and more compact.