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Electron Beam Melting (EBM) is a powder-bed additive manufacturing technology enabling the production of complex metallic parts with generally good mechanical properties. However, the performance of powder-bed based additively manufactured materials is governed by multiple factors that are difficult to control. Alloys that solidify in cubic crystal structures are usually affected by strong anisotropy due to the formation of columnar grains of preferred orientation. Moreover, processing induced defects and porosity detrimentally influence static and cyclic mechanical properties. The current study presents results on processing of a metastable austenitic CrMnNi steel by EBM. Due to multiple phase transformations induced by intrinsic heat-treatment in the layer-wise EBM process the material develops a fine-grained microstructure almost without a preferred crystallographic grain orientation. The deformation-induced phase transformation yields high damage tolerance and, thus, excellent mechanical properties less sensitive to process-induced inhomogeneities. Various scan strategies were applied to evaluate the width of an appropriate process window in terms of microstructure evolution, porosity and change of chemical composition.

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Electron beam melting (EBM) is an established powder bed-based additive manufacturing process for the fabrication of complex-shaped metallic components. For metastable austenitic Cr-Mn-Ni TRIP steel, the formation of a homogeneous fine-grained microstructure and outstanding damage tolerance have been reported. However, depending on the process parameters, a certain fraction of Mn evaporates. This can have a significant impact on deformation mechanisms as well as kinetics, as was previously shown for as-cast material. Production of chemically graded and, thus, mechanically tailored parts can allow for further advances in terms of freedom of design. The current study presents results on the characterization of the deformation and strain-hardening behavior of chemically tailored Cr-Mn-Ni TRIP steel processed by EBM. Specimens were manufactured with distinct scan strategies, resulting in varying Mn contents, and subsequently tensile tested. Microstructure evolution has been thoroughly examined. Starting from one initial powder, an appropriate scan strategy can be applied to purposefully evaporate Mn and, therefore, adjust strain hardening as well as martensite formation kinetics and ultimate tensile strength.