Effect of process parameters on density and mechanical behaviour of a selective laser melted 17-4PH stainless steel alloy

17-4 PH stainless steel alloy has been widely used in the field of defence industry such as weapon equipment, aerospace, nuclear energy, and so on because of its high strength, high toughness, high temperature resistance, and corrosion resistance. In order to meet the flexible manufacturing requirements of multi-variety small batch complex structure products with lower cost and higher efficiency, selective laser-melted 17-4PH stainless steel alloy has become the focus of research in the field of rapid alloy manufacturing in recent years. In this article, the density characteristics and the distribution characteristics of holes and spheroidization phenomena of 17-4 PH pre-alloyed powder subjected to multidimensional temperature conduction under selective laser melting are studied, and the mechanism of defect generation under temperature conduction is proposed. Finally, the optimal selection of the combination of different process parameters was carried out by orthogonal test, and it was found that the comprehensive mechanical behaviour of the 17-4 PH stainless steel alloy after being formed exceeded the ASTM A564 standard (the yield strength is 1,132 MPa, the tensile strength is 1,323 MPa, and the elongation is 16.6%).