Additive manufacturing, including laser powder bed fusion, offers possibilities for the production of materials with properties comparable to conventional technologies. The main aim of this paper is to describe the specific microstructure of 316L stainless steel prepared using additive manufacturing. The as-built state and the material after heat treatment (solution annealing at 1050 °C and 60 min soaking time, followed by artificial aging at 700 °C and 3000 min soaking time) were analyzed. A static tensile test at ambient temperature, 77 K, and 8 K was performed to evaluate the mechanical properties. The characteristics of the specific microstructure were examined using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The stainless steel 316L prepared using laser powder bed fusion consisted of a hierarchical austenitic microstructure, with a grain size of 25 µm as-built up to 35 µm after heat treatment. The grains predominantly contained fine 300–700 nm subgrains with a cellular structure. It was concluded that after the selected heat treatment there was a significant reduction in dislocations. An increase in precipitates was observed after heat treatment, from the original amount of approximately 20 nm to 150 nm.

A Cu–1.1%Cr–0.04%Zr (wt.%) alloy was processed by severe plastic deformation (SPD) using the equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) technique at room temperature (RT). It was found that when the number of passes increased from one to four, the dislocation density significantly increased by 35% while the crystallite size decreased by 32%. Subsequent rolling at RT did not influence considerably the crystallite size and dislocation density. At the same time, cryorolling at liquid nitrogen temperature yielded a much higher dislocation density. All the samples contained Cr particles with an average size of 1 µm. Both the size and fraction of the Cr particles did not change during the increase in ECAP passes and the application of rolling after ECAP. The hardness of the severely deformed Cu alloy samples can be well correlated to the dislocation density using the Taylor equation. Heat treatment at 430 °C for 30 min in air caused a significant reduction in the dislocation density for all the deformed samples, while the hardness considerably increased. This apparent contradiction can be explained by the solute oxygen hardening, but the annihilation of mobile dislocations during annealing may also contribute to hardening.

The aluminium alloy with chemical conception AlMgSi prepared by PM (powder metallurgy) technology was used. The experiments such as a ring and compression test, ECAR (equal channel angular rolling) for determination of friction coefficient, stress-strain curves and material workability based on analytical methods (Freudenthal, Cockcroft-Latham and normalized Cockcroft-Latham criteria) were performed. Numerical simulations of sample processed by ECAR was carried out by a software Deform 3D with focus on the description of stress, strain fields and workability criteria (Cockcroft-Latham and normalized Cockcroft-Latham). The prediction of fracture formations in a real ECAR sample during processing conditions was also done.

The determination of ductile fracture criteria as well as friction coefficient, stress-strain curves, constants for Hollomon's equation and a material workability based on analytical methods as a forming limit diagram, a normalized Cockcroft-Latham criteria (nCL)) ring and compression tests for two materials based on aluminum and copper alloys were carried out. A calculation of nCL criteria on the basis of a compression test and numerical simulations was made. The critical values nCL criteria resulting from compression test were determined. Prediction of nCL criteria by numerical simulations were confirmed by laboratory compression tests. The values obtained from numerical simulations and compression tests for both materials show a good coincidence in results.