A comparison of 316 L stainless steel parts manufactured by directed energy deposition using gas-atomized and mechanically-generated feedstock

Mechanically-generated powder could potentially provide a more sustainable and lower cost feedstock alternative for the additive manufacturing industry. This research compares properties of stainless steel parts printed on a commercially available directed energy deposition system using both gas-atomized and mechanically-generated feedstock. The manufacturer's recommended power, scan speed, and powder mass flow rate settings were kept constant for all builds at 275 W, 508 mm/min, and 8.2 g/min. The surface texture, microstructure, chemical composition, and mechanical properties of printed parts were compared and found to be similar. These findings show that mechanically-generated powder is a viable alternative in directed energy deposition processing. (C) 2020 CIRP. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.