The Effects of Energy Density on the Density and Microstructure of 316L Stainless Steel Produced by Selective Melting Laser

The selective laser melting process is one of the additive manufacturing processes of metals in which a laser beam melts selected areas on a powder bed and creates the parts in layers. One of the important challenges of this method is to make a part without any defects and reaching 100% density. The material selected for this study is stainless steel 316L powder and the NOURA M100P machine was used to make the samples. In this research, six samples with different energy densities were made from 160 j/mm3 to 260 j/mm3. After making the samples, their density was measured by the Archimedes method. A sample made with an energy density of 220 j/mm3 has the highest relative density of 97.93. By examining the microstructure of the printed samples, it was determined that the samples have grain boundary cracks and incomplete fusion cavities and keyhole phenomenon.