LAL, Orsay, France
ICMMO, Orsay, France
Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) has revolutionized mechanical engineering by allowing the quick production of mechanical components with complex shapes. AM by selective laser melting (SLM) is an advanced manufacturing process which uses lasers to melt metal powders one layer at a time to produce final 3D components. This technology could be also used to make Ultra High Vacuum components. Therefore, we investigated in this work the reproducibility of AM 316L stainless steel properties for different specimen supplied by several manufacturers with the same SLM process. Clearly, the microstructure and therefore the mechanical properties of the investigated AM samples are different as a function of manufacturers: indeed, they are largely influenced by processing parameters, which produces heterogeneous and anisotropic microstructures that differ from traditional wrought counterparts. Samples were also submitted to bake cycles at high temperature, in order to check the structural stability of material properties after heat treatments. The outgassing rates and the secondary emission yield of vacuum components constructed from AM 316L were also measured. Finally, the possibility to use AM for accelerator beam pipes will be discussed.
