Characterization of 316ln lattice structures fabricated via electron beam melting

One of the promising application areas of additive manufacturing (AM) relates to light weight structures, including complex near net shape geometries and lattices. So far one of the limiting factors hampering wider industrial usage of AM technologies is the limited availability of processed materials. The aim of present study was to expand the previous success in electron beam melting (EBM®) manufacturing of 316LN bulk materials into thinner lattice structures thus further widening the application areas available for the method. Present paper reports on the initial results where lattice structures with octagonal basic cells were manufactured using EBM® and characterized using microscopy and compression testing.