In this study, an AISI 316 L alloy was manufactured using a selective laser melting (SLM) process. The tensile and impact toughness properties of the SLM AISI 316 L alloy were examined. In addition, stress relieving heat treatment (650oC / 2 h) was performed on the as-built SLM alloy to investigate the effects of heat treatment on the mechanical properties. In the as-built SLM AISI 316 L alloy, cellular dendrite and molten pool structures were observed. Although the molten pool did not disappear following heat treatment, EBSD KAM analytical results confirmed that the fractions of the low- and high-angle boundaries decreased and increased, respectively. As the heat treatment was performed, the yield strength decreased, but the tensile strength and elongation increased only slightly. Impact toughness results revealed that the impact energy increased by 33.5% when heat treatment was applied. The deformation behavior of the SLM AISI 316 L alloy was also examined in relation to the microstructure through analyses of the tensile and impact fracture surfaces.

The present work investigated the dispersion behavior of Y2O3 particles into AISI 316L SS manufactured using laser cladding technology. The starting particles were produced by high energy ball milling in 10 min for pre- alloying, which has a trapping effect and homogeneous dispersion of Y2O3 particles, followed by laser cladding using CO2 laser source. The phase and crystal structures of the cladded alloys were examined by XRD, and the cross section was characterized using SEM. The detailed microstructure was also studied through FE-TEM. The results clearly indi- cated that as the amount of Y2O3 increased, micro-sized defects consisted of coarse Y2O3 were increased. It was also revealed that homogeneously distributed spherical precipitates were amorphous silicon oxides containing yttrium. This study represents much to a new technology for the manufacture and maintenance of ODS alloys.