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Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Parts Fabricated with Gas- and Water-Atomized 304L Stainless Steel Powder in the Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process
JOM
  • M. Hossein Sehhat
  • Austin T. Sutton
  • Chia Hung Hung
  • Joseph William Newkirk, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Ming-Chuan Leu, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

The use of gas-atomized powder as the feedstock material for the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process is common in the additive manufacturing (AM) community. Although gas-atomization produces powder with high sphericity, its relatively expensive production cost is a downside for application in AM processes. Water atomization of powder may overcome this limitation due to its low-cost relative to the gas-atomization process. In this work, gas- and water-atomized 304L stainless steel powders were morphologically characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The water-atomized powder had a wider particle size distribution and exhibited less sphericity. Measuring powder flowability using the Revolution Powder Analyzer (RPA) indicated that the water-atomized powder had less flowability than the gas-atomized powder. Through examining the mechanical properties of LPBF fabricated parts using tensile tests, the gas-atomized powder had significantly higher yield tensile strength and elongation than the water-atomized powder; however, their ultimate tensile strengths were not significantly different.

Department(s)
Materials Science and Engineering
Second Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Comments

U.S. Department of Energy, Grant DE-NA0002839

Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2023 Springer; Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
3-1-2022
Publication Date
01 Mar 2022
Citation Information
M. Hossein Sehhat, Austin T. Sutton, Chia Hung Hung, Joseph William Newkirk, et al.. "Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Parts Fabricated with Gas- and Water-Atomized 304L Stainless Steel Powder in the Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process" JOM Vol. 74 Iss. 3 (2022) p. 1088 - 1095 ISSN: 1543-1851; 1047-4838
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ming-leu/425/