316l stainless steel powders for additive manufacturing: Relationships of powder rheology, size, size distribution to part properties

Robert Groarke, Cyril Danilenkoff, Sara Karam, Eanna McCarthy, Bastien Michel, Andre Mussatto, John Sloane, Aidan O. Neill, Ramesh Raghavendra, Dermot Brabazon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Laser-Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) of metallic parts is a highly multivariate process. An understanding of powder feedstock properties is critical to ensure part quality. In this paper, a detailed examination of two commercial stainless steel 316L powders produced using the gas atomization process is presented. In particular, the effects of the powder properties (particle size and shape) on the powder rheology were examined. The results presented suggest that the powder properties strongly influence the powder rheology and are important factors in the selection of suitable powder for use in an additive manufacturing (AM) process. Both of the powders exhibited a strong correlation between the particle size and shape parameters and the powder rheology. Optical microscope images of melt pools of parts printed using the powders in an L-PBF machine are presented, which demonstrated further the significance of the powder morphology parameters on resulting part microstructures.

Original languageEnglish
Article number5537
Pages (from-to)1-19
Number of pages19
JournalMaterials
Volume13
Issue number23
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020

Keywords

  • Metal additive manufacturing
  • Microstructure
  • Powder bed fusion
  • Powder rheology
  • Stainless Steel 316L

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