Comparison on mechanical behavior and microstructural features between traditional and AM AISI 316L

The aim of the present work is to investigate the difference in mechanical behavior between AISI 316L obtained by the turning process and that obtained by selective laser melting (SLM). To obtain a correlation between mechanical behavior and microstructure, static tensile and fatigue tests were performed, monitoring the energy release of the material adopting, respectively, the static thermographic method (STM) and the Risitano's thermographic method (RTM). Failure analysis was performed using optical and scanning electron microscopy. The corrosion resistance was evaluated by the double-loop electropotential reactivation (DL-EPR). Worst mechanical properties, both under static and fatigue loading conditions, loss of corrosion resistance, and heat dissipation compared to traditional stainless steel have been found. These findings can be attributed to microstructural defects typical of the SLM printing technology.