A laser-sinterable powder product has been prepared having unique
properties which allow the powder to be sintered in a selective laser
sintering machine to form a sintered part which is near-fully dense. For
most purposes, the sintered part is indistinguishable from another part
having the same dimensions made by isotropically molding the powder. In
addition to being freely flowable at a temperature near its softening
temperature, a useful powder is disclosed that has a two-tier
distribution in which substantially no primary particles have an average
diameter greater than 180 .mu.m, provided further that the number average
ratio of particles smaller than 53 .mu.m is greater than 80%, the
remaining larger particles being in the size range from 53 .mu.m to 180
.mu.m. A powder with slow recrystallization rates, as evidenced by
non-overlapping or slightly overlapping endothermic and exothermic peaks
in their differential scanning calorimetry characteristics for scan rates
of on the order of 10.degree. C. to 20.degree. C. per minute, will also
result in sintered parts that are near-fully dense, with minimal
dimensional distortion.