Comparison of the powder bed fused materials from different powder manufacturers

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) has enabled not only designers over the last few years to boost a huge boom in the design and optimization of machine components. Part of the additive manufacturing is not only the design of the component itself, but the individual steps involved in the creation of computer documentation necessary for the preparation of the AM, the selection of suitable material and the printing itself with possible subsequent heat treatment. Process parameters, including the choice of powder, have a significant effect on the resulting component properties. The powder is one of the process features that play a significant role. The main aim of the research is to compare the properties of materials made from different powders manufacturers. A micro - tensile tests (M-TT), reinforced by metallographic and fractographic analysis, were used to analyse the materials, allowing a detailed discussion of the resulting material properties.