Selective laser melting has received a great deal of attention in recent years. Nevertheless, research has been mainly focused on the technical issues and their relationship with the final microstructure and monotonic properties. Fatigue behaviour has rarely been addressed, and the emphasis has been placed on high-cycle regimes. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to study, in a systematic manner, the cyclic plastic behaviour of AISI 18Ni300 maraging steel manufactured by selective laser melting. For this purpose, low-cycle fatigue tests, under fully-reversed strain-controlled conditions, with strain amplitudes ranging from 0.3% to 1.0%, were performed. After testing, fracture surfaces were examined by scanning electron microscopy to identify the main fatigue damage mechanisms. The analysis of results showed a non-Masing material, with a slight strain-softening behaviour, and non-linear response in both the elastic and plastic regimes. In addition, this steel exhibited a very low transition life of about 35 reversals, far below the values of conventional materials with equivalent monotonic mechanical properties, which can be attributed to the combination of high strength and low ductility. The total strain energy density, irrespective of strain amplitude, revealed itself to be a quite stable parameter throughout the lifetime. Finally, the SEM analysis showed for almost all the tested samples cracks initiated from the surface and inner defects which propagated through the rest of the cross section. A ductile/brittle fracture, with a predominance of brittle fracture, was observed in the samples, owing to the presence of defects which make it easier to spread the microcracks.

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Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is an additive manufacturing technology, ideal for the production of complex-shaped components. Design against fatigue is fundamental in the presence of cyclic loads, particularly for these materials which typically have significant porosity, high surface roughness and residual stresses. The main objective here is to study fatigue crack growth (FCG) in the 18Ni300 steel obtained by SLM. Typical da/dN-ΔK curves were obtained in C(T) specimens, indicating that cyclic plastic deformation may be the controlling mechanism. A complementary analysis, based on plastic CTOD range, showed a relatively low level of crack tip plastic deformation, and consequently a reduced level of plasticity induced crack closure. The curve da/dN versus plastic CTOD range is clearly above the curves for other materials.

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Selective Laser Melting (SLM) is currently one of the more advanced manufacturing and prototyping processes, allowing the 3D-printing of complex parts through the layer-by-layer deposition of powder materials melted by laser. This work concerns the study of the fracture toughness of maraging AISI 18Ni300 steel implants by SLM built over two different conventional steels, AISI H13 and AISI 420, ranging the scan rate between 200 mm/s and 400 mm/s. The SLM process creates an interface zone between the conventional steel and the laser melted implant in the final form of compact tension (CT) samples, where the hardness is higher than the 3D-printed material but lower than the conventional steel. Both fully 3D-printed series and 3D-printed implants series produced at 200 mm/s of scan rate showed higher fracture toughness than the other series built at 400 mm/s of scan rate due to a lower level of internal defects. An inexpressive variation of fracture toughness was observed between the implanted series with the same parameters. The crack growth path for all samples occurred in the limit of interface/3D-printed material zone and occurred between laser melted layers.

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Selective laser melting (SLM) is an emerging additive manufacturing technology, capable of producing complex geometry components. The current work studied both the effect of substrate material and mean stress on the fatigue crack growth behaviour along interfaces of bi‐material specimens, substrate, and part by SLM. Fatigue tests were carried out in agreement with ASTM E647 standard, using 6‐mm‐thick compact specimens. The substrate steel has only a negligible effect both on the fatigue crack propagation rate and on the crack path. The failure occurs in the material additively manufactured by SLM, near the interface. The mean stress produced only a reduced influence on the fatigue crack propagation rate in the Paris regime. For larger values of ΔK, where Kmax approaches KIc, a significant influence of the mean stress was observed. In spite of nondetection of crack closure, the application of overloads promoted significant fatigue crack retardation, quite similar for both substrate materials, probably due to the crack bifurcation during the overload.