Towards laser metal deposition of modified PH 13-8 Mo powder

Martensitic precipitation hardening stainless steels (MPHSS) have a good combination of corrosion resistance and mechanical properties for demanding applications in aerospace, petrochemical, and tooling industries. Additive manufacturing is gaining attention to produce MPHSS components, and specifically, the laser metal deposition process with powder as feedstock (LMDp) has the potential to be utilized in these industries. However, very limited investigation on the LMDp of these alloys has been performed. In this work, the LMD pprocess was used to deposit a single layer of modified PH 13-8Mo alloy to understand the evolution of the microstructure as an initial stage towards the deposition of more complex additively manufactured sequences. The microstructure and hardness of different regions of the single layer will be investigated. It is expected that the local thermal histories experienced by the material during the deposition will have an influence on the resulting microstructure.