Processes of Physical Treatment of Stainless Steels Obtained by Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

With a vista of available stainless steel grades at our disposal, it is possible to manufacture items for a wide range of industries. These include chemicals production, medicine, and pharmacology, aerospace, power engineering, etc. Stainless steels are widely used mostly due to their unique property set, both mechanical and physicochemical ones, achieved by alloying various components. Stainless steel workpieces are usually obtained by melting, alloying, casting, and subsequent rolling to the desired shape. The experience in the study of the microstructure and processes of physical treatment of steel accumulated to the present day mainly concerns the machinability (blade, abrasive, laser, etc.) of such steels obtained by conventional techniques. Meanwhile, approaches to the production of workpieces from stainless steels by additive manufacturing (AM) methods are actively developing. In their turn, additive manufacturing technologies allow for producing workpieces that are structurally as close as possible to the final product shape. However, the use of AM workpieces in the manufacturing of functional products brings questions related to the study of the treatability of such steels by mechanical and physical processes to achieve a wide range of functional characteristics. This article discusses the issues of treatability and the characteristics and properties of stainless steels obtained by AM.