Selective laser melting of dispersed TiC particles strengthened 316L stainless steel

Abstract 316L austenitic stainless steel has a wide range of industrial applications. However, one of the major drawbacks is its low yield strength (170–300 MPa in annealed state). We report a method to strengthen 316L by adding 1 wt% and 3 wt% micron-sized TiC particles using low energy ball milling for the powder feedstock preparation followed by selective laser melting (SLM). The TiC particles were observed to be uniformly dispersed and well bonded to the 316L matrix after SLM. The 316L-TiC composites obtained were close to full density and the austenite grains were significantly refined with the addition of TiC particles. Tensile tests show that adding 1 wt% and 3 wt% TiC particles leads to a significantly increased yield strength (660 MPa and 832 MPa) and UTS (856 MPa and 1032 MPa) and maintains the good ductility (55% and 29% elongation). These findings offer a new perspective on the strengthening of 316L stainless steel