Effect of selective laser melting process parameters on the microstructure and properties of a precipitation hardening stainless steel

Abstract

In this paper, selective laser melting (SLM) was used to manufacture corrax stainless steel samples under different parameters. It was found that the SLMed samples were mainly composed by lots of fine martensite (including cellular structure, cellular dendritic grains and blocky grains), and trace austenite. During SLM forming process, a large number of low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs) and high-density dislocations were formed in the matrix. Meanwhile, the samples showed weak texture and no obvious preference orientation. Moreover, the relative density of all SLMed samples reached above 90%, and the relative density was above 97% when the laser energy density was 54.13–78.19 J·mm−3. Under the optimal process parameters of P = 190 W, V = 1.1 m·s−1, the relative density of sample reached above 99.52 ± 0.09%, while the sample exhibited the best mechanical properties, including the highest microhardness (374.2 ± 6.5HV), yield strength (YS = 946 ± 7.3 MPa), ultimate tensile strength (UTS = 1084 ± 3 MPa) and elongation (EL = 17.64 ± 0.18%). Moreover, the strengthening mechanisms of SLMed samples mainly included grain boundary strengthening, dislocation strengthening and precipitation strengthening, while dislocation strengthening played a dominant role. Besides that, the fracture mechanisms of SLMed samples belonged to ductile fracture, except for the samples prepared with laser energy density below 54.13 J·mm−3.