<p>The selective laser sintering (SLS) is an important additive manufacturing process widely known for its ability to produce both prototype and end-use functional parts with ease. One of the issues with the SLS process is its high material exploitation and processing cost for low volume production and development of a new material. In view of this, the present paper is aimed at developing an alternative process suitable for small batch production of a nano-composite. Since, fire-retardation is an important concern for industrial suitability of composites, a fire-retardant composite comprising Aluminium Oxide (Al₂O₃) ceramic in polyamide (PA12) matrix was considered for this study. A conventional casting process, known as pressure-less casting, was used to prepare the standard specimens of Al₂O₃/PA12 composite in different weight proportions of Al₂O₃ and PA12. The material development process required material characterization, thermal and rheological analysis of all the specimens to select the optimal fraction of Al₂O₃ and PA12 material. The comprehensive material and physical characterization of the Al₂O₃/PA12 composite provided several valuable insights for deciding operating process parameters for SLS technique. For example, the study reveals that the SLS process parameters are material dependent. The melting point of the material increases due to cyclic heating. Similarly, the rheological property and melt flow index of the material also change due to rise in temperature. In view of this, the part bed temperature needs to be modified for each new cycle before processing in SLS machine. Overall, the pressure-less casting can be used successfully for developing nano-composites for SLS. The study reveals that a small addition of Al₂O₃ in PA12 improves both mechanical properties and fire-retardation properties significantly.</p>