Microstructure and mechanical properties of 304L steel fabricated by arc additive manufacturing

For 304L large structural parts used in nuclear power, it is hard and costly to fabricate and machine traditionally. Wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) has low cost and high material utilization, which provides an efficient way to fabricate the large structural parts. So in this study, WAAM is used to fabricate the parts of 304L stainless steel. Through the tensile test and metallographic analysis, the mechanical properties and microstructure of the 304L stainless steel fabricated by WAAM were explored. The results indicate that with the layers depositing, the cooling rate becomes slower, the dendrites become thicker and the morphology becomes more stable. Due to the existence of dendrites, the grain boundary strengthening effect is different between the transverse direction and longitudinal direction, and resulting in anisotropy of mechanical properties. However, the mechanical properties of the parts correspond to the forged piece, which lays the foundation for future applications.