Additive manufacturing processes like selective laser beam melting of polymers (LBM) are established for production of prototypes and individualized parts. The transfer to serial production currently is hindered by the limited availability of polymer powders with good processability.Within this contribution the effect of powder properties, such as particle size, shape and flowability on the processability in LBM and their influence on device quality is exemplified for polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) materials. A process chain for the production of spherical polymer microparticles has been developed to obtain PBT powder materials. The process chain consists of three steps: First, polymer microparticles are produced by wet grinding.Second, the particle shape is engineered by rounding in a heated downer reactor to improve the flowability of the product. A further improvement of flowability of the still cohesive spherical PBT particles is realized by dry coating with fumed silica.

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