Effect of Surface Oxides on the Melting and Solidification of 316L Stainless Steel Powder for Additive Manufacturing

Surface oxidation of metallic powders may significantly affect their melting and solidification behavior and limit their service life in the additive manufacturing (AM) process. In the present work, three levels of surface oxide concentration were prepared on AM-grade 316L stainless steel powders, and their melting and solidification behavior was systematically studied through in-situ observation, advanced characterization, phase-field modeling, and theoretical analysis. Si, Mn, and Cr participated in the oxidation reaction in powder with low and medium oxygen contents, whereas Fe was involved in the oxidation reaction for the powder samples with high oxygen content. A higher full melting temperature is observed to lead to an integrated melt pool in the melting of the highly oxidized powder, which is due to the reduced permeability produced by the oxide cage effect. For the droplet samples prepared from high oxygen powders, the inclusion with increased volume fraction and coarsened size is attributed to the agglomeration of inclusion particles with the residual oxide in the melt. In the high oxygen powder fusion scenario, an undesired coarse columnar grain structure with a high aspect ratio is formed in the current nonequilibrium solidification process, and a consistent microstructure is predicted using solidification conditions with a high cooling rate and high thermal gradient similar to the conventional AM process. In contrast, fine equiaxed grains in the experiment and slim columnar grains with a small aspect ratio in the phase-field simulation are obtained for the low oxygen powder condition. This study illustrates the effect of powder oxide from a processing aspect and provides insight into the importance of improving the service life of powder feedstock by effectively reducing the surface oxidation process on the powder surface.