Charpy impact testing of metallic selective laser melting parts

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a layer-additive manufacturing technology which makes it possible to create fully functional parts directly from standard metals without any intermediate binders or any additional post-processing steps. During SLM, a high-intensity laser beam selectively scans a powder bed according to the CAD data of the part to be produced and powder particles are completely melted. SLM is capable of producing near full density parts with an almost infinite geometric freedom. However, the mechanical properties obtained with SLM may differ from the ones of bulk material. In this study, Charpy impact tests are applied on the samples produced by SLM from different materials; Ti-6A1-4V, AISI 316L (X2CrNiMo18-14-3) and maraging steel 300 (X3CoMoTi18-9-5). The influence of the building axis as well as of various heat treatments applied on the samples after SLM is investigated. The evolution of the microstructures of the sample parts is also studied.