Mechanical Analysis and Heat Simulation of Laser Welding of 3D-Printed SS316L Stainless Steel

Additive manufacturing is becoming increasingly common in industry fabrications especially for durable and expensive spare parts which cannot be found easily in the local market and also for tailor made parts. For large parts that are not economically and practically 3D printed, due to its size limitation it is sometimes more convenient to join 3D printed parts together to form larger parts. In this paper 3D printed flat plates 3mm thick were prepared by direct laser sintering of SS316L stainless steel powder. Mechanical properties and microstructure were investigated. Elongation and maximum tensile stress of 3D printed flat plates are with 1.3% and 704MPa close to the values 2% and 1241MPa of cold-rolled SS316 parts. The 3D printed flat plates were joined by laser welding. The welded joints were tested for their mechanical properties and microstructure, and simulation of the welding process was performed by ANSYS. For the used welding conditions, the fracture occurred outside the weld zone. The maximum stress of the welded parts is 80% of 3D printed flat plates. The elongation of the welded parts is above 3%.