In this study, STS316L powders prepared by gas atomization are used to manufacture bulk structures with dimensions of 10 × 10 × 10 mm3 using selective laser melting (SLM). The microstructures and hardness of the fabricated 316L stainless steel has been investigated with the laser beam overlap varied from 10% to 70%. The microstructures of the fabricated STS316L samples show a decrease in the balling and satellite of powders introducing defect in the bulk samples and the porosity caused by the gap between the molten metal pools disappearing as the overlap ratio increases, whereas a low overlap ratio results in significant balling and a large amount of isolated powders due to the increased gap between the melt pools. Furthermore, the highest value in Vickers hardness is obtained for the sample fabricated by 30% overlapped laser beams. These results show that the overlap ratio of laser beams in the SLM process should be considered as an important process parameter.
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In this study, porous stainless steel (STS316L) sintered body was fabricated by powder metallurgy method and its properties such as porosity, compressive yield strength, hardness, and permeability were evaluated. 67.5Fe-17Cr- 13Ni-2.5Mo (wt%) powder was produced by a water atomization. The atomized powder was classified into size with under 45 μm and over 180 μm, and then they were compacted with various pressures and sintered at 1210°C for 1 h in a vacuum atmosphere. The porosities of sintered bodies could be obtained in range of 20~53% by controlling the compaction pressure. Compressive yield strength and hardness were achieved up to 268 MPa and 94 Shore D, respectively. Air permeability was obtained up to 79 l/min·cm2. As a result, mechanical properties and air permeability of the optimized porous body having a porosity of 25~40% were very superior to that of Al alloy.
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