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This paper presents a research dealing with the dependence of the fatigue strength of maraging steel parts, manufactured by direct selective laser sintering, on the production build orientation. Three sets of specimens have been manufactured according to the ISO 1143 Standard (2010) by EOSINT M280 additive manufacturing machine, with the following heat and mechanical treatments, in agreement with the recommendations by the material manufacturer and current literature. The expected outcomes are the Fatigue Limit values of the material and the maximum number of cycles observed at different stress levels for three different build orientations (three different angles, 0°, 45° and 90°, between the build direction and the longitudinal axis of the samples). The results have been processed and compared by statistical methods in order to determine the fatigue curves in the finite life domain and the fatigue limits, along with their confidence bands and intervals, and to investigate the significance of the build orientation factor.

The quality of additively produced parts and the achievable mechanical response may be affected by several factors, such as build orientation, heat treatment, or machining. A further rarely investigated factor is the position of the built part in the chamber with respect to inert gas flow. Previous studies have highlighted that the interaction between gas flow and laser track may induce an intense vaporization with consequent lack of fusion, particle entrainment, drop in density and denudation of the produced part, which is likely to detrimentally affect mechanical properties. This study addresses the effect of part position on the fatigue strength of heat-treated maraging steel MS1 produced by an EOSINT M280 machine in a nitrogen environment. Novelty arises from the lack of studies in this field, especially under fatigue. A factorial plan with subsequent statistical analysis highlighted that positioning the part upstream with respect to the gas flow leads to a slightly lower fatigue strength; however, no significant differences are observed. The failure mode, involving initiation from subsurface porosities of the same size, is also unaffected. Finally, a fatigue limit of 26% of the ultimate tensile strength is found, which is consistent with previous outcomes.

This paper deals with the novel topic of the fatigue response of additively manufactured Maraging Stainless Steel CX. A two-by-two factorial plan was arranged, to experimentally assess the effects of heat treatment and machining on the fatigue strength in both finite and infinite life domains. The two factors were regarded as on–off, taking the untreated unmachined condition as a reference for comparisons. Cylindrical specimens with vertical build orientation were involved in the fatigue campaign under four-point rotating bending. The results indicate that the fatigue strength may be remarkably incremented (up to five times) with respect to the as received conditions, especially thanks to surface smoothing and taking advantage of a very low porosity level. Heat treatment strengthening mechanisms were also interpreted in the light of optical and electron microscope observations. Fatigue enhancement arises from precipitate size increment throughout the conducted heat treatment, although the fracture mode turns to be more brittle.

The goal of this paper is to present studies of the influence of orientation of steel samples during additive manufacturing to their fatigue behaviour. The samples were produced from maraging steel EOS MS1 and stainless steel EOS PH1 using direct laser metal sintering technology. Three sets of samples were manufactured for each of the materials, with slopes of longitudinal axis of the samples being 0° (horizontal), 45° (slanted) and 90° (vertical) with respect to the horizontal building plane. All the samples were post-processed by heat treatment, shot-peening and machining, and tested according to the ISO 1143 standard. The curves for finite life domain were calculated using ISO 12107, and an estimation of the fatigue limit was made by Dixon-Mood method. The obtained results show that the building orientation has no significant influence on fatigue strength of maraging steel samples, while the stainless steel samples with slanted orientation of the axis have fatigue strength of up to 20% higher than the samples with horizontal or vertical orientation of the axis.

The main motivations for this study arise from the need for an assessment of the fatigue performance of DMLS produced Maraging Steel MS1, when it is used in the “as fabricated” state. The literature indicates a lack of knowledge from this point of view, moreover the great potentials of the additive process may be more and more incremented, if an easier and cheaper procedure could be used after the building stage. The topic has been tackled experimentally, investigating the impact of heat treatment, machining and micro-shot-peening on the fatigue strength with respect to the “as built” state. The results indicate that heat treatment significantly enhances the fatigue response, probably due to the relaxation of the post-process tensile residual stresses. Machining can also be effective, but it must be followed (not preceded) by micro-shot-peening, to benefit from the compressive residual stress state generated by the latter.

This paper presents an experimental investigation on specimens manufactured by Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), with the purposes of giving designers advice when designing 3D printed parts, and laying the basis for a step forward in the field of fracture mechanics of 3D complex parts. The aim is to investigate the effect of building direction in Polyamide (PA) 3D printed samples and to assess whether a crack can be initiated directly from the sintering process for fracture mechanics study purposes. Six different configurations of Mode I Compact Tension (CT) specimens were manufactured and tested; the experiments were monitored by Digital Image Correlation (DIC) and fractured surfaces were analyzed using microscopy. Results showed that samples with better mechanical performance are those in which all the layers contain a portion of the crack. On the other hand, those with layers parallel to the crack plan offer a preferential pathway for the crack to propagate. DIC and fractography investigations showed that, under certain conditions, small-radius geometries, or too-close surfaces may bond together depending on printer resolution. Experiments also showed that SLS is capable of printing specimens with internal cracks that can be used to study fracture mechanics of complex parts or parts with internal cracks.

This work derives its motivations from the increasing interest towards Additive Manufacturing and the lack of studies, mainly in the field of fatigue. The effect of build orientation and of allowance for machining on DMLS produced Maraging Steel MS1 has been assessed. The experimental results, properly set up by tools of Design of Experiment, have been statistically processed and compared. The outcomes were that, probably due to effect of the thermal treatment, machining and material properties, the aforementioned factors do not have a significant impact on the fatigue response. This made it possible to work out a global curve, accounting for all the result. Fracture surfaces have been carefully studied as well.