Stainless Steel 316L Fabricated by Fused Deposition Modeling Process: Microstructure, Geometrical and Mechanical Properties

Additive manufacturing (AM) methods are widely used to produce metal products. However, the cost of equipment for processes based on material melting is high. In this paper, a promising, less expensive method of producing metal products from metal-filled Ultrafuse 316L filament by FDM was investigated. The aim of this work was to compare the debinding methods and investigate the microstructure, phase composition, and geometric and mechanical properties. The results showed that catalytic debinding can be replaced by thermal debinding as no significant effect on the structure and properties was found. In addition, a filament study was performed and data on the particle size distribution, morphology, and phase composition of the metal particles were obtained. Thermodynamic modeling was performed to better understand the phase distribution at the sintering stage. The delta-Fe fraction influencing the corrosion properties of the material was estimated. The conformity of geometric dimensions to the original 3D models was evaluated using 3D scanning. The applied printing and post-processing parameters allowed us to obtain a density of 98%. The material and technology represent a promising direction for applications in the field of lightweight engineering in the manufacturing of parts with bioinspired designs, shells, and sparse filler structures with useful porosity designs (like helicoidal structures).