Additive Manufacturing of 316L Stainless Steel

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a process of making parts by adding ultrathin layers of materials such as liquid, powder or sheet material layer by layer using 3D printing machine with the aid of a computer-aided design (CAD) software from 3D model data. Intricate, complex parts with graded material can be fabricated with ease. However, additively manufactured parts can vary in physical and mechanical properties with conventionally manufactured parts. In this final year project, AM was done using metal powder of 316L stainless steel alloy owing to good corrosion resistance, ductility and strength. The main objectives for this project are to fabricate 316L stainless steel using AM and to study the physical and mechanical properties of the addictively manufactured specimens compared with electrical discharge machining (EDM) wire cut specimens. A standard specimen bone shaped were manufactured in accordance with ASTM E8 and followed by physical and mechanical testing. From the testing and analysis, 316L stainless steel samples manufactured via AM route have the ultimate tensile strength ranged from 514 to 520 MPa while EDM specimens ranged from 574 to 576 MPa, the yield strength of AM specimens ranged from 385 to 390 MPa while EDM specimens ranged from 350 to 355 MPa, and the average elongation at failure of AM specimens are 45% while EDM specimens are 66%. From this project, it shows that AM specimens have comparable physical and mechanical properties with EDM specimens.