Additive manufacture (AM) appears to be the most suitable technology to produce sophisticated, high quality, lightweight parts from Ti6Al4V alloy. However, the fatigue life of AM parts is of concern. In our study, we focused on a comparison of two techniques of additive manufacture—selective laser melting (SLM) and electron beam melting (EBM)—in terms of the mechanical properties during both static and dynamic loading. All of the samples were untreated to focus on the influence of surface condition inherent to SLM and EBM. The EBM samples were studied in the as-built state, while SLM was followed by heat treatment. The resulting similarity of microstructures led to comparable mechanical properties in tension, but, due to differences in surface roughness and specific internal defects, the fatigue strength of the EBM samples reached only half the value of the SLM samples. Higher surface roughness that is inherent to EBM contributed to multiple initiations of fatigue cracks, while only one crack initiated on the SLM surface. Also, facets that were formed by an intergranular cleavage fracture were observed in the EBM samples.

For the first time, the comprehensive characterization of the additively manufactured AlSi₉Cu₃Fe alloy is reported in this paper. Conventionally, the AlSi₉Cu₃(Fe) alloy is prepared by high-pressure die casting (HPDC), but this technology largely does not offer such opportunities as additive manufacturing (AM) does, especially in the design of new lightweight parts. In the present paper, testing samples were prepared by selective laser melting (SLM), one of the AM technologies, and characterized in terms of their microstructure (by means of light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy in combination with analytical techniques for evaluation of chemical and phase composition) and mechanical properties (static tension, compression, and hardness). All the characteristics were compared with the HPDC reference material. Our study showed an excellent improvement both in strength (374 ± 11 MPa compared to 257 ± 17 MPa) and plasticity (1.9 ± 0.2% compared to 1.2 ± 0.5%) of the material thanks to its very fine and distinctive microstructure.

3D printing technology has recently extended to metallic materials and allows now to produce 3D models directly from metallic powders. There are several methods of 3D metal printing, such as Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Direct Metal Laser ...

3D printing technologies like Selective Laser Melting (SLM) or Electron Beam Melting (EBM) produce components of very complicated shapes from various kinds of materials. In this work a highly porous (porosity of almost 90 vol. %) stainless steel component was manufactured by SLM. The material was characterized in terms of structure, surface chemistry and mechanical properties. It was observed that mechanical properties of the material were similar to those of trabecular human bone. The tests realized in this work confirmed suitability of the porous material prepared by SLM for the use in medicine, for example, for scaffolds designed to repair bone defects.

Selective laser melting (SLM) is one of additive manufacturing technologies capable of processing metallic materials. The quality of final product is influenced by a variety of parameters. Although this technology has been studied intensively ...