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Microstructure and mechanical behaviour of 316L stainless steel produced using sinter-based extrusion additive manufacturing

  • Metal Additive Manufacturing
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Abstract

Specimens were additively manufactured in 316L stainless steel (SS316L) with a technology that combines the extruding method of fused filament fabrication (FFF) with the strengthening stages of metal injection moulding (MIM). A thorough metallographic analysis and tensile testing were carried out to investigate the effect of sintering in the final microstructures, mechanical properties, and fracture modes of the manufactured material. SS316L wrought specimens were also characterised and tested for comparison. Results showed that the sinter-based technology produced a near-fully dense material with a porosity of 1.27% v/v, and a microstructure and mechanical properties comparable to the standard requirements of the UNS S31603 grade. The sintered specimens were characterised at as annealed condition, with fully austenitic microstructures, annealing twins, and sintering defects such as (1) scattered round microporosity, (2) elongated macroporosity, (3) spherical inclusions rich in Si, Mn and O —also found in the precursor powder— and (4) irregular inclusions rich in Cr, Mn and O. The average mechanical properties of the printed SS316L were Young’s modulus (E) 196 GPa, 0.2% offset yield strength (Sy) 166 MPa, tensile strength (Su) 524 MPa, elongation after fracture 85% and reduction of area 51%. Based on the findings, a mechanism is outlined explaining the departure from the typical cup-and-cone ductile fracture in the necked region observed in the printed samples.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of Woodside Energy, as well as the access to the instruments of the Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility (MMF) at Curtin University and the Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA) from the University of Western Australia.

Funding

The fund was provided by Curtin University Grant number (4610000822).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin Corrosion Centre, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Ricardo Santamaria, Mobin Salasi, Sam Bakhtiari, Garry Leadbeater, Mariano Iannuzzi & Md Zakaria Quadir

  2. John de Laeter Centre, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Md Zakaria Quadir

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  1. Ricardo Santamaria
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  2. Mobin Salasi
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Contributions

RS: was involved in conceptualisation, methodology, validation, investigation, writing—original draft. MS: contributed to conceptualisation, supervision, writing—review and editing. SB: was involved in conceptualisation, investigation, data curation. GL: contributed to conceptualisation, writing—review and editing. MI: was involved in writing—review and editing, funding acquisition. MZQ: contributed to supervision, writing—review & editing.

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Correspondence to Ricardo Santamaria.

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Santamaria, R., Salasi, M., Bakhtiari, S. et al. Microstructure and mechanical behaviour of 316L stainless steel produced using sinter-based extrusion additive manufacturing. J Mater Sci 57, 9646–9662 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-021-06828-8

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