Manufacturing and characterization of similar to foam steel components processed through selective laser melting

Abstract

The growing interest from the industry for lightweight metal components has driven the development of processes that would allow creating lightweight high melting point metals as steels, able to guarantee mechanical characteristics superior to existing foam (typically aluminium), without penalizing one of the characteristics that cell structures have: lightness. Conventional manufacturing methods, such as casting, however, face difficulty in making complex periodic steel structures with designed shape and size and volume fraction. This study evaluates the manufacturability and performance of lightweight 17–4 PH steel components with spherical porosity fabricated via selective laser melting (SLM). Samples were designed and fabricated with the purpose to produce a structure similar to foam. Built samples were characterized in terms of dimensional accuracy, mechanical strength under compression and energy absorbed per unit mass. The designed structures have a designed relative density or volume fraction ranging between 31.1 and 32.8%.