Characterisation of a wire arc additive manufactured 308L stainless steel cylindrical component

Abstract

Abstract Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology that uses a modified robotic welding machine to manufacture parts in a layer-by-layer pattern. In the current study, a 308L stainless steel (SS) cylindrical component was manufactured by WAAM technique using gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process. The mechanical and microstructural characteristics of the deposited WAAM 308L SS cylinder were investigated. The microhardness of the WAAM SS cylinder varied slightly along the building direction. The lower zone of the cylinder showed higher hardness than the middle and upper zones. The tensile strength (TS), yield strength (YS) and elongation (EL) of the WAAM 308L cylinder are 331–356 MPa, 535–582 MPa, and 44–51% in the longitudinal, transverse and diagonal orientations, respectively. The microstructure of the WAAM SS cylinder is characterized by austenite dendrites that grow vertically and residual ferrite that exists within the austenite matrix. The results show that the properties of 308L SS cylinder produced by the GMAW-WAAM technique is matching with wrought 308L SS alloy (YS: 360–480 MPa, UTS: 530–650 MPa and EL: 35–45%). Therefore, the GMAW-WAAM 308L SS technique is found to be suitable for industrial use to manufacture stainless steel components.