We have investigated the impact of the process parameters for the selective laser melting (SLM) of the stainless steel AISI 316L on its microstructure and mechanical properties. Properly selected SLM process parameters produce tailored material properties, by varying the laser’s power, scanning speed and beam diameter. We produced and systematically studied a matrix of samples with different porosities, microstructures, textures and mechanical properties. We identified a combination of process parameters that resulted in materials with tensile strengths up to 711 MPa, yield strengths up to 604 MPa and an elongation up to 31%, while the highest achieved hardness was 227 HV10. The correlation between the average single-cell diameter in the hierarchical structure and the laser’s input energy is systematically studied, discussed and explained. The same energy density with different SLM process parameters result in different material properties. The higher energy density of the SLM produces larger cellular structures and crystal grains. A different energy density produces different textures with only one predominant texture component, which was revealed by electron-backscatter diffraction. Furthermore, three possible explanations for the origin of the dislocations are proposed.

The impact of asymmetric cold rolling was quantitatively assessed for an industrial aluminum alloy AA 5454. The asymmetric rolling resulted in lower rolling forces and higher strains compared to conventional symmetric rolling. In order to demonstrate the positive effect on the mechanical properties with asymmetric rolling, tensile tests, plastic-strain-ratio tests and hardness measurements were conducted. The improvements to the microstructure and the texture were observed with a light and scanning electron microscope; the latter making use of electron-backscatter diffraction. The result of the asymmetric rolling was a much lower planar anisotropy and a more homogeneous metal sheet with finer grains after annealing to the soft condition. The increased isotropy of the deformed and annealed aluminum sheet is a product of the texture heterogeneity and reduced volume fractions of separate texture components.

Additive manufacturing is a form of powder metallurgy, which means the properties of the initial metal powders (chemical composition, powder morphology and size) impact the final properties of the resulting parts. A complete characterization, including thermodynamic effects and the behavior of the metal powders at elevated temperatures, is crucial when planning the manufacturing process. The analysis of the Fe-Mn and Fe-Mn-Ag powder mixtures, made from pure elemental powders, shows a high susceptibility to sintering in the temperature interval from 700 to 1000 °C. Here, numerous changes to the manganese oxides and the αMn to βMn transformation occurred. The problems of mechanically mixed powders, when using selective laser melting, were highlighted by the low flowability, which led to a less controllable process, an uncontrolled arrangement of the powder and a large percentage of burnt manganese. All this was determined from the altered chemical compositions of the produced parts. The impact of the increased manganese content on the decreased probability of the transformation from γ-austenite to ε-martensite was confirmed. The ε-martensite in the microstructure increased the hardness of the material, but at the same time, its magnetic properties reduce the usefulness for medical applications. However, the produced parts had comparable elongations to human bone.

Metallographic investigations are critical in research and materials’ quality control. Therefore, these methods are very present in scientific and industrial activities. In particular for quality control, metallographic analyses have an indirect correlation with quality, time and economic aspect in the metallurgical industry. Most of the metallographic methods used for aluminium alloys’ quality determination are non-standard and are required by customers. The suitability and effectiveness of these metallographic control methods are best determined by interlaboratory investigations. In this investigation, two metallographic laboratories with seven different operators using five different light microscopes with associated software were involved. The interlaboratory analyses covered a determination of the rim zone, dendritic arm space, intermetallic phases and non-metallic inclusions. From the calculated measurement uncertainty, where in the worst case results differ by 4.7 %, it is clear that all four metallographic methods are suitable for implementation in industrial quality laboratories, when correctly and accurately defined (with easy-to-follow instructions).

In the whole manufacturing chain of aluminium products, hot rolling significantly impacts the obtaining of favourable microstructures and desired mechanical properties of final products. The determination of crucial differences between the reverse hot rolling on a single-stand mill and the tandem hot rolling on a tandem-stand mill presented a major challenge. Besides the grain-size distribution in the microstructure’s cross-section, the crystallographic textures of hot-rolled strips were also determined and compared. The alternating band areas of a coarse-grained microstructure and fine-grained microstructure due to reverse hot rolling and, especially, the appearance of extremely fine grains on the surfaces present limitations compared to the tandem hot rolling. For subsequently cold-rolled foils, classical mechanical properties were measured. Besides, the usefulness of EN AW-8021B foils with a thickness of 60 µm for pharmaceutical-packaging applications was tested with a burst test. A minor but important difference of 1 % in the elongation is shown for the convex height increased by 1 mm.