Microstructure and mechanical properties of stainless steel/calcium silicate composites manufactured by selective laser melting

Selective laser melting (SLM) is raised as one kind of additive manufacturing (AM) which is based on the discrete -stacking concept. This technique can fabricate advanced composites with desirable properties directly from 3D CAD data. In this research, 316L stainless steel (316L SS) and different fractions of calcium silicate (CaSiO3) composites (weight fractions of calcium silicate are 0%, 5%,10% and 15%, respectively) were prepared by SW technique with a purpose to develop biomedical metallic materials. The relative density, tensile, micro-hardness and elastic modulus of the composites were tested, their microstructures and fracture morphologies were observed using optical microscope (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that the addition of CaSiO3 particles influenced the microstructure and mechanical properties of specimens significantly. The CaSiO3 precipitates from the overlap of adjacent tracks and became the origin of the defects. The tensile strength of specimens range 320-722 MPa. The microhardness and elastic modulus are around 250 HV and 215 GPa respectively. These composites were ductile materials and the fracture mode of the composites was mixed mode of ductile and brittle fracture. The 316L SS/CaSiO3 composites can be a potential biomedical metallic materials in the medical field. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.