Mechnical properties of 17-4PH stainless-steel at various laser sintering process parameters

Abstract

As a material for conventional manufacturing, iron and its alloys had been an object of numerous studies in the past and, as a result, steel became one of the best-known metal alloys in industry. However, new manufacturing technologies, such as additive manufacturing (AM), open new possibilities for the same materials. In this paper, we investigate stainless steel powder for additive manufacturing technologies and parts fabricated from it. Powder chemical composition and morphology are presented in the study. The influence of laser power and laser scanning speed on the mechanical properties of materials and microstructure was studied, and the experimental results showed the optimal energy density values between 50 and 65 J/mm3. However, the value of energy density varies depending on which parameters are observed, i.e. the optimum energy density value is different for the ultimate tensile stress (UTS) and surface roughness or the Young’s modulus and hardness.