Crystallographic texture configured by laser powder bed fusion additive manufacturing process: a review and its potential application to adjust mechanical properties of metallic products

The performance of engineering materials depends on the conciliation between their structure defined by the fabrication process and the properties required for their application. Within this context, the new developments in the additive manufacturing (AM) process offer great potential to generate new applications and to induce technological innovations with engineering materials. One of these innovations is the possibility of using the crystallographic texture to control proprieties that normally would not be adjustable by other mechanisms, but which are needed in certain specific applications, such as low stiffness for metallic implant parts. In this way, this article presents a structured review to describe trends in production parameters of AM by LPBF process suitable to obtain and control crystallographic texture aiming to improve the property-performance relationship of metallic materials. The increasing evolution of AM by LPBF technology is generating opportunities to increase control over texture and thus over texture-dependent properties of metallic materials products. Despite the potential of tailoring material properties by texture control, the practical use of this technique in AM by LPBF processes is still incipient.