Influence of the Amount of Master Alloy on the Properties of Austenitic Stainless Steel AISI 316L Powder Sintered in Hydrogen

AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel powder was modified with four different amounts of boron (0.1; 0.2; 0.3; 0.4 of wt. %) in the form of MasterAlloy micro-powder, and was sintered in a pure dry hydrogen atmosphere in order to obtain high density sintered samples characterized by a thickened non-porous surface layer. We investigated the influence of the amount of boron on: density, hardness, grain microhardness, porosity, microstructure and surface quality. The study revealed that it is possible by a conventional compacting and sintering process to obtain near full-density sintered samples with a non-porous superficial layer without boride precipitations.