A Comprehensive Analysis of AISI 316L Samples Printed via FDM: Structural and Mechanical Characterization

Metal Fused Deposition Modelling is a promising multi-step process able to manufacture metal parts by means of a low-cost additive technique. In this study, a metal-polymer composite filament characterized by homogenous mixture of AISI 316L sinterable metal powders and a multicomponent polymeric matrix was used to fabricate samples by means of a FDM printer. A 24 full factorial design of experiments was elaborated to define the possible influence of the relevant printing parameters on dimensional shrinkage, bulk density and overall porosity of printed samples. In addition, the mechanical properties of printed AISI 316L samples were investigated by performing tensile tests, compression tests, Charpy impact tests, Rockwell B and Vickers hardness tests. An Xray diffraction analysis was conducted to assess the crystallographic structure of the FDM AISI 316L samples.