Tailoring hierarchical structures in selective laser melted materials

With selective laser melting the potential to manufacture a wide variety of geometries from different materials has presented itself. Interest in this technology keeps growing every year, and with that growth a deeper understanding of the process and resulting materials is urgently needed. In this paper we present a short overview of the structural elements that appear during selective laser melting, and explain how to tailor them to achieve specific structures and material properties. Melt-pools, texture and grains, subgrain cells, and inclusions are the elements discussed herein, and tailoring of these elements can have effects on density, and corrosion resistance, as well as mechanical properties in general. (paper)