Effect of laser power on microstructure and properties of Fe–Mn–Al–Ni–C lightweight steels prepared by laser powder bed fusion

The composition of Fe–30Mn–11Al–12Ni–1C lightweight alloy steels was designed and the effect of laser power on the microstructure and properties of the lightweight steels formed by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) was studied in this paper. The results show that the relative density of lightweight steel samples formed by LPBF increases gradually with the increase of laser power at a constant scanning speed, and the relative density of samples formed at 120 W is the highest, reaching 99.2%. Under the different laser power, the unfused regions appear in the plane parallel to the construction direction (XOY), and the cracks appear in the plane perpendicular to the construction direction (XOZ). The defect types on the XOY observation plane are different from the XOZ observation plane, which are reflected in the following aspects: XOY plane has a large number of unfused pores, spherical powders, and large holes, and with the increase of laser power, the unfused defects and hole areas gradually decrease, and the spherical powders disappear; the defects on the XOZ plane are mainly holes and cracks, with the increase of laser power, the holes decrease gradually, but the crack width increases. The hardness of samples shows anisotropy, and the anisotropy gradually decreases with the increase of laser power. The hardness on the XOZ plane does not change obviously with laser power, but it is higher than the XOY plane. The microhardness on the XOY plane changes greatly, because the laser power increases and the effect of defects is reduced. When the laser power is 120 W, the hardness on the XOZ plane reaches the maximum as HV_0.2 441.3. With laser power of 90 W and scanning speed of 800 mm·s⁻¹, the yield strength and tensile strength of the formed light steel samples reach the maximum value, which are 800.8 MPa and 825.4 MPa respectively. There is a large amount of the precipitated phase at the grain boundary of the samples, resulting in the low elongation of all the samples, so the plasticity of the LPBF formed light steel is poor.