Selective laser melting of stainless steel 316L with low porosity and high build rates

Abstract

The present study employs fast scanning speeds to fabricate high-density stainless steel 316L (SS316L) parts via selective laser melting (SLM). It aims to improve the production rate while maintaining a low porosity for the SLM-built parts. Density values of >99% were recorded for all the fabricated samples in this study. The scanning speed of the laser could be much improved due to the use of 380W power laser. The overall build rate in this study is supposed to be enhanced by ~72% as compared to commonly used processing parameters. Detailed microstructural characterization was carried out in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of the microstructure of SLM-built SS316L. The microhardness of built parts is between 213 and 220HV, which is much higher than that of the standard annealed counterpart of ~155HV. This study provides an insight on how to improve SLM build rates without any loss of parts' density and mechanical properties.