Influence of Aging Temperature on Mechanical Properties and Structure of M300 Maraging Steel Produced by Selective Laser Melting

This paper deals with the study of high-strength M300 maraging steel produced using the selective laser melting method. Heat treatment consists of solution annealing and subsequent aging; the influence of the selected aging temperatures on the final mechanical properties-microhardness and compressive yield strength-and the structure of the maraging steel are described in detail. The microstructure of the samples is examined using optical and electron microscopy. The compressive test results show that the compressive yield strength increased after heat treatment up to a treatment temperature of 480 degrees C and then gradually decreased. The sample aged at 480 degrees C also exhibited the highest observed microhardness of 562 HV. The structure of this sample changed from the original melt pools to a relatively fine-grained structure with a high fraction of high-angle grain boundaries (72%).

Automated summary

This paper investigates high-strength M300 maraging steel produced using the selective laser melting method. The effects of aging temperatures on mechanical properties and microstructure are analyzed. The compressive yield strength increases after heat treatment at 480 degrees C and then gradually decreases, while the microhardness reaches its highest value at 480 degrees C. The structure of the steel changes from melt pools to a fine-grained structure with a high proportion of high-angle grain boundaries (72%).