Revealing relationships between porosity, microstructure and mechanical properties of laser powder bed fusion 316L stainless steel through heat treatment

The understanding of relationships between processing, microstructure and mechanical properties in laser powder bed fusion is currently incomplete. Microstructure-property relations in 316L stainless steel are revealed in this study using isothermal heat treatments as an investigative tool. As-built material was heat treated to selectively remove microstructural features such as melt pool boundaries, microsegregations and the as-built grain...