                                     ! "#$%  &’()*+ !  ,  -,#$  -%,  $$$,  ! . /  0  This work presents the results of a study carried out to determine the sliding wear behavior and its effect on the process parameters of components manufactured by selective laser sintering (SLS). A standard procedure and specimen had been used in the present study to find the wear behavior. Using Taguchi’s experimental technique, an orthogonal array of L4 had been developed. Sliding wear testing using pin-on-disk machine was carried out and analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique was used to investigate the effect of process parameters and to identify the main process parameter that influences the properties of wear behavior on the SLS components. It has been found that scan spacing had more influence on wear as compared to other selected process parameters, slice thickness and infiltration.  Rapid prototyping (RP) technology is a widely used technology that can fabricate 3D parts directly from computer aided design (CAD) data without using any traditional tooling. Complex parts that cannot be manufactured by a traditional process can be produced with a very short lead time using RP. Many RP technologies have been developed and are widely used to manufacture prototypes and functional parts [1]. Selective laser sintering (SLS), a widely used technique among the solid free form fabrication processes for rapid prototyping because of its capability to form arbitrary geometry without part specific tooling. One of the major advantages is its ability to process a very wide range of material (standard polymers, metals, ceramics, foundry sand, etc.) in a direct way with excellent material properties [2]. In laser sintering, there are a number of input parameters that can be controlled and varied so as to get desirable qualities in the sintered sample. Some of these input parameters are slice thickness, hatching distance, scanning speed, step size, powder characteristics, laser parameters like power, density, pulse duration, etc. and infiltration. Considerable amount of work has been carried out and reported on this subject. Factorial experiments has been done to express the strength of a sintered sample as a function of laser power, scanning speed and scan spacing and their respective interaction terms [3]. The variation of small and large beam spot sizes and effect of heat loss on strength of the sintered samples are studied. Laser parameters like laser beam power, spot size and experimental parameters like scanning speed and hatching distance have great influence on various properties of laser-sintered bronze product. It is reported that density increases as surface roughness decreases with decrease in hatching distance [4]. It also states about the influence that material parameters like particle size distribution exert on the melting behavior. Experiments on SLS of gas atomized M2 high speed steel powder using laser powers of 2.5-100 W, scans rates of 1-30 mm/s and scan line spacing of 0.15 -0.75 mm were carried out. For fully dense samples, smooth surfaces could be achieved using large scan line spacing [4]. An investigation of surface properties, measurements of friction coefficient and wear rate of laser sintered and coated parts to increase the wear resistance with hard Co-based and glassy like Fe- based (FeB) coatings [6]. The microstructure, phase composition, mechanical and tribological properties of (Fe,Ni)-TiC composites prepared by DMLS were investigated [7]. Invar 36 utilized in this investigation is Fe-Ni alloy with a low coefficient of thermal expansion. A reliability study on Advanced Materials Research Vols. 488-489 (2012) pp 1419-1423 Online available since 2012/Mar/15 at www.scientific.net © (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.488-489.1419 All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, www.ttp.net. (ID: 117.211.91.3-19/03/12,09:57:44)