Engineered microstructure evolution in inconel 718 via laser powder bed fusion through a novel element-based approach

Engineered microstructure enables localised control in mechanical properties within a single material. In this research, a novel element-based approach is proposed to engineer the microstructure by varying the laser power and scan speed in laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process. A sample containing 25 elements were printed at different laser power and scan speed values and the resultant microstructure exhibited that the textured grains increase with laser energy density (LED). Subsequently, the measured hardness of the element printed at highest LED was approximately 14 % higher than the element printed at lowest LED. Current research is a proof of concept for the element-based approach to engineer the microstructure through L-PBF technique which can be extended to the component level by correlating the microstructure with element position and laser parameters.