Effect of laser power on defect, texture, and microstructure of a laser powder bed fusion processed 316L stainless steel

Highlights: • Decrease in laser power by half within optimal processing regime results in about seven-fold increase in porosity. • The melt pool shape changes from flat-and-wide to fish-scale morphology with the same decrease in laser power. • At the same time, the preferred orientation changes from strong (200) to random texture. -- Abstract: The effect of laser power on defect characteristics, microstructure development, constituent phases, and crystallographic texture was studied on a laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) processed 316L stainless steel. A series of specimens was additively manufactured as a function of laser power ranging from 380 to 200 W with a fixed scan speed of 300 mm/s. The density, size, shape, and orientation of pores in as-printed L-PBF cylinders were characterized using high-resolution synchrotron X-ray computed microtomography with a 0.65 μm resolution. The changes in the texture and phases were investigated using high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The melt pool shape and grain size/orientation were also analyzed using metallography. The results show that the porosity increases linearly from 0.13 to 0.88% with the decrease in laser power. However, even with a decrease in laser power by about half and corresponding seven-fold increase in porosity, the 200 W case can still be considered as nearly fully dense. On the other hand, with the same decrease in the laser power, the cellular spacing was refined from 1.5 to 0.75 μm and the texture changed from strong (200) to random. Therefore, within an optimal porosity range, it is feasible to manipulate microstructure significantly using the control of laser power.