There is an upsurge of research interest on Alloy 718 additively manufactured (AM) by electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF) technique in aero and land-based gas turbine engines. However, the surface quality of the manufactured components has always been a major challenge. Several factors, including powder particle size, layer thickness, beam parameters, scanning strategies, and inclination angle of the build, govern the surface characteristics. Along with surface roughness resulted from partially melted powder particles, surface defects such as balls, satellites, microcracks as well as up-skin and down-skin surfaces can enhance the vulnerability of the manufactured parts to corrosion. When the surface is unable to withstand the exposed environment adequately, corrosion can be triggered. The surface-induced corrosion failures are increasingly becoming more challenging as the AM components often have complex geometries that render them even more difficult to finish. So, the relatively poor surface finish is the barrier to the full exploitation of the AM industry. In the present study, to achieve the desired surface quality, hence an improved high temperature corrosion performance, shot peening was implemented on Alloy 718 parts manufactured by EB-PBF. The high temperature corrosion behavior of the parts was investigated in an ambient air environment at 650 and 800 °C for up to 336 h. The underlying physical and chemical factors at play of the parts exposed to the corrosive environment were investigated too. The effect of topographical features (e.g., surface roughness) and microstructural characteristics (e.g., grain structure, phases, and defects) on high temperature corrosion behavior were analyzed by 3D surface profilometry, hardness test, optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The surface roughness and high temperature corrosion rate of the parts was significantly reduced after shot peening.

This thesis work was done to get a fundamental knowledge of the mechanical and microstructural properties of 316L stainless steel fabricated with the additive manufacturing technique, laser powder-bed fusion (L-PBF). The aims of the thesis were to study the mechanical and microstructural properties in two different building orientations for samples built in two different machines, and to summarize mechanical data from previous research on additive manufactured 316L. Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D-printing, is a manufacturing technique that in recent years has been adopted by the industry due to the complexity of parts that can be built and the wide range of materials that can be used. This have made it important to understand the behaviour and properties of the material, since the material differs from conventionally produced material. This also adds to 316L, which is an austenitic stainless steel used in corrosive environments. To study the effect of the building orientation, samples of 316L were built in different orientations on the build plate. The density and amount of pores were also measured. Tensile testing and Charpy-V testing were made at room temperature. Vickers hardness was also measured. Microstructure and fracture surfaces were examined using light optical microscope (LOM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The microstructure of the 316L made with L-PBF was found to have meltpools with coarser grains inside them, sometime spanning over several meltpools. Inside these coarser grains was a finer cellular/columnar sub-grain structure. The tensile properties were found to be anisotropic with higher strength values in the orientation perpendicular to the building direction. Also high dense samples had higher tensile properties than low dense samples. The impact toughness was found to be influenced negatively by high porosity. Hardness was similar in different orientations, but lower for less dense samples. Defects due to lack of fusing of particles were found on both the microstructure sample surfaces and fracture surfaces. The values from this study compare well with previous reported research findings.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a promising manufacturing process that provides that ability to fabricate components with complex geometries with relatively low lead times compared to other manufacturing processes. This allows for more freedom of design, as prototypes can easily be produced throughout the development process. AM is also especially beneficial in tooling applications, where internal geometries such as cooling channels are required in order to improve the quality of the manufactured parts. These geometries are more difficult to produce with more conventional manufacturing methods such as forging or casting. Currently, Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) shows the most promise in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM) of metals, as it offers the freedom to produce complex components with little post processing required. Additionally, post processing with Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) can be implemented to significantly enhance the final properties of the material.  The LPBF-process can produce many different defects within the parts such as: part porosity and lack of fusion. This is mainly due to the layer-by-layer configuration of the process. Parts can also experience large thermal fluctuations and rapid cooling rates which can generate large residual stresses. This can result in significant cracking in certain high alloyed materials which can impact part quality and  material properties. If the cracking is severe enough, it will result in failure of the entire component and render the entire parts completely useless. Post processing with HIP may remove some of these defects and reduce the residual stresses in the material and thus produce a material with properties that are satisfactory. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the processability of a high alloy cold work tool steel with LPBF. The main focus is the influence of the processing parameters and part geometry on the quality of the produced parts. Furthermore, the influence of the processing parameters on defects and microstructure will also be investigated. The aim is to produce parts that can be enhanced with HIP as a post processing treatment. Additionally, the impact of HIP on the properties of the part will also be investigated in order to determine if the there are any improvements in terms ofreduction in part defects and the removal of any undesired microstructural features which are produced from the process. The experimental results showed that the processability of the tool steel is difficult. Several sample volumes were produced with varying processing parameters and scanning strategies, and all the specimens from all sample volumes exhibited some cracking. Parts produced with a combination of contouring and hatching strategy, where there is an internal structure showed the most promise, as these parts exhibited the least amount of severe cracking. However, additional research of the processing parameters and scanning strategies is required in order to reduce the amount of cracking of the external shell structure and thus, achieve proper densification of the parts when post processing with HIP. / Additiv tillverkning (AM) är en lovande tillverkningsprocess som ger möjligheten att tillverka komponenter med komplexa geometrier med relativt låga ledtider jämfört med andra tillverkningsprocesser. Detta ger större frihet i under designprocessen eftersom prototyper enkelt kan produceras under hela utvecklingsprocessen. AM är också särskilt fördelaktigt i verktygstillämpningar, där interna geometrier såsom kylkanaler krävs för att förbättra kvaliteten på de tillverkade delarna. Dessa geometrier är svårare att tillverka med mer konventionella tillverkningsmetoder som smidning eller gjutning. För närvarande visar det sig att Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) är det mest lovande inom området additiv tillverkning av metaller, eftersom processen erbjuder friheten att producera komplexa komponenter samt att efterbearbetning som krävs blir mindre. Dessutom kan efterbearbetning med Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) implementeras för att avsevärt förbättra materialets slutliga egenskaper. LPBF-processen kan ge upphov till många olika defekter i delarna såsom: delporositet och lack of fusion. Detta beror främst på att processen sker lagervis vilket kan ge upphov att många småfel. Delar kan också uppleva stora termiska fluktuationer och snabba kylningshastigheter som kan generera stora restspänningar. Det kan resultera i stor sprickbildning i vissa höglegerade material vilket kan påverka delarnas kvalitet och materialegenskaper. Om sprickorna som bildas är stora eller djupa nog kommer detta att resultera i att hela komponenten blir oanvändbar. Efterbearbetning med HIP kan ta bort en del av dessa defekter och minska restspänningarna i materialet och därmed producera ett material med goda egenskaper. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka bearbetbarheten hos ett höglegerat kallbearbetningsstål med som produceras med LPBF. Huvudfokus är påverkan av processparametrar och detaljgeometrin på kvaliteten på de producerade delarna. Vidare kommer också processparametrarnas inverkan på defekter och mikrostruktur att undersökas. Syftet är att producera delar som kan förbättras med HIP som efterbehandlingsbehandling. Dessutom kommer effekterna av HIP på delens egenskaper också att undersökas för att avgöra om det finns några förbättringar i termer av minskning av deldefekter och avlägsnande av alla oönskade mikrostrukturella egenskaper som produceras från processen. De experimentella resultaten visade att verktygsstålets bearbetbarhet är svår. Flera provvolymer producerades med varierande processparametrar och skanningsstrategier, och alla prover från alla provvolymer uppvisade viss sprickbildning. Delar som tillverkats med en kombination av kontur och hatch, där det finns en inre struktur visade sig mest lovande, eftersom dessa delar uppvisade minst sprickbildning. Ytterligare arbete av processparametrarna och skanningsstrategier krävs dock för att minska mängden sprickbildning i den yttre skalstrukturen och därmed uppnå korrekt förtätning av delarna vid efterbearbetning med HIP.

Metal additive manufacturing (AM) can produce complex parts that were once considered impossible or too costly to fabricate using conventional machining techniques, making AM machines an exceptional tool for rapid prototyping, one-off parts, and labor-intensive geometries. Due to the growing popularity of this technology, especially in the defense and medical industries, more researchers are looking into the physics and mechanics behind the AM process. Many factors and parameters contribute to the overall quality of a part, one of them being the powder bed itself. So far, little investigation has been dedicated to the behavior of the powder in the powder bed during the lasering process. A powder spreading machine that simulates the powder bed fusion process without the laser was designed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and was built as a platform to observe powder characteristics. The focus for this project was surface roughness and particle size distribution (PSD), and how dose rate and coating speed affect the results. Images of the 316L stainless steel powder on the spreading device at multiple layers were taken and processed and analyzed in MATLAB to access surface quality of each region. Powder from nine regions of the build plate were also sampled and counted to determine regional particle size distribution. As a comparison, a simulation was developed to mimic the adhesive behavior of the powder, and to observe how powder distributes powder when spread.

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Additive Manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D Printing, is a disruptive modern manufacturing process, in which parts are manufactured in a layer-wise fashion. Among the metal AM processes, Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) technology has opened up a design space that was not formerly accessible with conventional manufacturing processes. It is, now, possible to manufacture complex geometries, such as topology-optimized structures, lattice structures and intricate internal channels, with relative ease. PBF is comprised of Electron Beam Melting (EBM) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) processes. Though AM processes offer several advantages, the suitability of these processes to replace conventional manufacturing processes must be studied in detail; for instance, the capability to produce components of consistent quality. Therefore, understanding the relationship between the AM process together with the post treatment used and the resulting microstructure and its influence on the mechanical properties is crucial, to enable manufacturing of high-performance components. In this regard, for AM built Alloy 718, only a limited amount of work has been performed compared to conventional processes such as casting and forging. The aim of this work, therefore, is to understand how the fatigue properties of EBM and SLM built Alloy 718, subjected to different thermal post-treatments, is affected by the microstructure. In addition, the effect of as-built surface roughness is also studied. Defects can have a detrimental effect on fatigue life. Numerous factors such as the defect type, size, shape, location, distribution and nature determine the effect of defects on properties. Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) improves fatigue life as it leads to closure of most defects. Presence of oxides in the defects, however, hinders complete closure by HIP. Machining the as-built surface improves fatiguelife; however, for EBM manufactured material, the extent of improvement is dependent on the amount of material removed. The as-built surface roughness, which has numerous crack initiation sites, leads to lower scatter in fatigue life. In both SLM and EBM manufactured material, fatigue crack propagation is transgranular. Crack propagation is affected by grain size and texture of the material.

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