Scratch and wear resistance of additive manufactured 316L stainless steel sample fabricated by laser powder bed fusion technique

This study investigates the structural and tribotechnological properties of a 316L stainless steel sample additively manufactured by the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technique. The tribotechnological tests have been performed on the top surface in the prepared samples. Structural analysis at the top and the side surface shows that surface textures (100), (111) and (001) are strongly built. The scratch test is performed at three different loads to assess the effect on penetration depth and friction response, wherein some deformation is observed only at the highest load. These loads are further used for the ball-on-disk dry sliding tests to quantify the changes resulting from linear/continuous motion. The obtained values of sliding friction and wear are slightly higher than the scratch test results, but the overall effect is similar. The role of the peculiar microstructural feature of the LPBF samples on wear mechanism is described. Also, the influence of pore and tribo-film formation on the wear mechanism is validated by the Raman analysis. The comparison of tribotechnological properties of additive manufactured and conventionally manufactured (cold rolled) samples shows significant results in the additive samples.