Structure and Mechanical Properties of Laser Powder Bed-Fused and Wrought PH13-8Mo-Type Precipitation Hardening Stainless Steels: Comparative Study

This work focuses on the structure and properties of a laser powder bed-fused (LPBF) precipitation hardening stainless steel and its chemically analogous wrought counterpart, both subjected to an identical combination of solution and aging treatments with the objective of maximizing the material hardness. It was observed that both the LPBF and wrought alloy follows similar evolution of their phase composition, microstructure, and mechanical properties throughout the different stages of the technological workflow. After a solution treatment at 850 °C for 0.5 h and an aging at 525 °C for 2 h, both alloys achieve their highest hardness of ~50 HRC. Notwithstanding this similarity, the LPBF alloy offers a finer microstructure and a lower amount of retained austenite than its wrought counterpart. This microstructure provides comparable strength characteristics to both the LPBF and wrought alloys, while offering a significantly higher ductility to the former as compared to the latter. The elongation at break of the LPBF alloy is, however, strongly build orientation-dependent, with a measured anisotropy of 23%. This anisotropy is caused by the presence of processing-induced pores (average pore size ~23 µm) in the LPBF alloy preferably distributed in planes oriented perpendicular to the build direction