Effect of Scanning Strategy on the Microstructure and Load-Bearing Characteristics of Additive Manufactured Parts

Additive manufacturing has witnessed significant growth in recent years, revolutionizing the automotive and aerospace industries amongst others. Despite the use of additive manufacturing for creating complex geometries and reducing material consumption, there is a critical need to enhance the mechanical properties of manufactured parts to broaden their industrial applications. In this work, AISI 316L stainless steel is used to fabricate parts using three different strategies of the additively manufactured Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) technique, i.e., continuous, alternate, and island. This study aims to identify methods to optimize grain orientation and compaction support provided to the material under load, which influence the frictional and wear properties of the manufactured parts. The load-bearing capacity is evaluated by measuring the frictional and wear properties. The wear patch track is also examined to establish the physical mechanisms at the surface interface that lead to the smooth transition in response to the load. Grain orientation is compared across different strategies using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) maps, and the influence of surface roughness on sliding behavior is also evaluated. The results demonstrate that the island scanning strategy yields the best performance for load-bearing applications, exhibiting superior grain orientation and hardness in the additively manufactured parts.