The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (2021) 117:3465–3475

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-07786-w

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Effect of heat treatment on microstructure and mechanical

characteristics of 316L stainless steel parts fabricated by hybrid
additive and subtractive process
Shuoshuo Qu 1,2 & Yadong Gong 3

Received: 4 November 2020 / Accepted: 24 July 2021 / Published online: 30 August 2021
# The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2021

Abstract
The effect of solution heat treatment on the mechanical and microstructural properties of 316L stainless steel parts fabricated
through hybrid additive and subtractive process (HASP) is explored. These techniques synergistically combine additive
manufacturing directed energy deposition (DED) with subtractive manufacturing (SM) technique in a single machine, and they
provide an important opportunity to improve material utilization, part complexity and quality management in functional com-
ponents. Thin-wall specimens were manufactured by HASP to investigate the effect of the solution heat treatment at different
temperatures and different holding times on the microstructure and the resultant mechanical properties, such as the Vickers
micro-hardness and tensile property. The results show that the content of δ and σ phases can be optimized via heat treatment.
While the solution treatment temperature and time increase, the content of the σ and δ phases in the γ matrix can distinctly
decrease, which causes the strength to degrade but the ductility to increase. These results suggest that the microstructure and the
resulting mechanical properties of HASP-fabricated samples can be adjusted through the adjustment of solution heat treatment.

Keywords Solution heat treatment . Microstructure . Vickers micro-hardness . Tensile property . Hybrid additive and subtractive
process

Nomenclature LSCM Laser scanning confocal microscope

HASP Hybrid additive/subtractive process FCC Face centred cubic
DED Directed energy deposition BCC Body centred cubic
AM Additive manufacturing WQ Water quenching
SM Subtractive manufacturing UTS Ultimate tensile strength
HAZ Heat affected zone YS Yield strength
SEM Scanning electron microscopy ETF Elongation to failure
P Laser power
V scan speed
h Layer thickness
* Yadong Gong vZ Milling linear speed
[email protected] ae Amount of radial feed
Shuoshuo Qu ap Amount of axis feed
[email protected] fz Feed per tooth
1
Center for Advanced Jet Engineering Technologies (CaJET), School
of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University,
Jinan, Shandong 250061, People’s Republic of China
2
Key Laboratory of High Efficiency and Clean Mechanical
1 Introduction
Manufacture, Shandong University, Ministry of Education,
Jinan, Shandong 250061, People’s Republic of China 316L stainless steel (SS) is extensively applied in high-
3
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Northeastern temperature bolts, marine, biomedical applications and other
University, Shenyang 110819, People’s Republic of China industries with a stable austenitic microstructure because of its
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strong corrosion resistance, good high-temperature strength, indicate that the length, height, and layer thickness of the part
resistance to inter-granular corrosion, machinability and other have remarkable impact on the deformations of the parts. Liu
characteristics [1, 2]. In the twenty-first century, innovation is et al. [11] put forward a topology optimization method to
essential to ensure competitive advantages and maintain the obtain parts with geometrical complexity and dimensional ac-
sustainable development of the company in the era of the curacy by hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing, which
knowledge economy and information age. Additive has been successfully implemented by designing a few 3D
manufacturing (AM) technique is a prevalent and important structures. The method is being extended to adopt an unstruc-
representative of a manufacturing process that has matured tured grid of high quality at present, and its formulation and
rapidly in the past few decades and has been gradually applied capability will be reported in the future.
to all walks of life: aerospace, automotive, medical, military, However, the unique conditions generate some specific
mould manufacture and so on as an advanced material pro- problems, such as the precipitated intergranular phases that
cessing skill. Contrary to the traditional subtractive are rich in Cr in the heat affected zone (HAZ) and hot cracking
manufacturing (SM) technology, which is a “top-down” ma- that exists in the DED process under the context of HASP
terial removal machining process, AM is a “bottom-up” pro- owing to the rapid solidification and then quick cooling [12].
cess that adds material to three-dimensional components from At high temperatures, austenite is the equilibrium phase; nev-
a feedstock via line by line and then layer upon layer forming ertheless, the equilibrium phases include delta-ferrite (δ), sig-
and consolidation. A wide range of complex shapes and ma (σ) and carbides such as M23C6 under ambient tempera-
higher utilization ratios of the material are produced via a ture on the basis of the Fe-Cr-Ni pseudo-binary diagram [13].
computer-controlled laser beam source [3–5]. AM methods It has also been shown that the amount of δ-ferrite in austenitic
including directed energy deposition (DED) [3], laser melting stainless steel can improve cracking susceptibility and de-
deposition (LMD) [4] and direct metal deposition (DMD) [5] crease segregation; moreover, it is generally believed that
have been made. Common to all of these processes is that the δ-phase can be used as a strengthener for high strength,
metals, whether it is powder or wire, are directly melted using and it is widely used in welded and cast steel as well [14].
a laser beam or electric arc [6]. Moreover, the “staircase ef- However, the hard and brittle sigma phase with a tetragonal
fect” is one of the most important and basic characteristic of crystal structure appears in austenitic stainless steel if the tem-
all of the abovementioned, which gives rise to the layer-wise perature is kept at 400 to 900 °C, which can decrease the
approximation of component geometries, residual stresses and mechanical properties, such as fracture toughness and ductil-
the partial bonding of small particles, which lead to the prob- ity [15]. Prior studies have shown that the σ phase and car-
lem of surface quality degradation [7]. Furthermore, the tem- bides would have an adverse effect on the performance of
perature gradient and geometric shape of the molten pool have stainless steel [16]. Therefore, to acquire the required mechan-
a significant effect on the processes of metal additive ical property, it is essential to change the microscopic structure
manufacturing. Temperature gradients and correlated surface in the 316L SS components within the HASP. In general, heat
tension could draw attention to quick flow dynamic motions, treatment is one of the commonly used processes to soften
leading to the “dishing” or “humping” during the solidifica- stainless steel, eliminate unnecessary phases and residual
tion process [8]. Long thin molten pools can cause stress in stainless steel and improve microstructure and me-
spheroidization, thus decreasing the surface quality, uniformi- chanical properties [17]. The heat treatment temperature is
ty of the material property and part density [9]. Mechanical between 950 and 1150 °C, and then water quenching (WQ)
subtractive processes, such as milling, drilling and grinding, can be conducted to effectively make the carbides and σ phase
have been widely applied to additive manufacturing process- dissolve in the steel [18]. The heat treatment temperature and
es, and they can obtain better precision and surface quality time ought to be carefully designed for fear of dispensable
characteristics as well as residual stresses are released. As a gain growth [19]. To the authors’ knowledge, not so much
result, the hybrid additive and subtractive process (HASP), has been described systematically on the microstructure and
which combine additive and subtractive processes in a single mechanical properties of HASP-fabricated 316L samples
machine, have drawn a great deal of attention owing to their when subjected to heat treatment.
ability to exploit the advantages of each single process while In the present work, the AISI 316L SS powder as a starting
minimizing their shortcomings [10, 11]. The combination of material was employed to fabricate metal components. The
additive and subtractive technologies has been put forward influence of solution heat treatment at different temperatures
and developed to fabricate the finished components, also in- and different holding times on the microstructural feature,
cluding the reuse and remanufacture of high-valve parts. Zhu including the phase transformation behaviours and mechani-
et al. [10] used the hybrid manufacturing (HM) method to cal properties, such as tensile properties and Vickers micro--
fabricate any type of component with a complicated structure hardness of 316L SS parts, was detailed discussed. The
and studied the influence of the process parameters on the part study may provide the theoretical foundation for the
distortions that occurred in the AM process. The results HASP to increase efficiency, reduce costs and lead times
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2021) 117:3465–3475 3467

and reliably fabricate 316L SS components with opti- fine surface state of the metal part. Fig. 2 d and e show exam-
mized microstructure and mechanical properties. ples of the CNC milling process and additive deposition pro-
cess, respectively.
In order to study solution heat treatment on the mechanical
2 Material and experimental methods and microstructural properties of 316L cube-shaped samples
(length of 140 mm, width of 2 mm and height of 40 mm)
2.1 Material manufactured by HASP, according to the previous experimen-
tal experience, the parameters of the DED process were as
In this work, gas atomization AISI 316L SS powder with follows: the powder feed rate was 1 g/min, the laser power
spherical shape and diameters ranging from 10 to 130 μm (P) was 1000 W, the scan speed (V) was 360 mm/min and the
was chosen as the starting material. A scanning electron mi- layer thickness (h) was set at 0.5 mm. Subsequently, for the
croscopy (SEM) image of AISI 316L SS powder and the sake of surface quality improvement of the DED process, dry
corresponding particle size distribution are shown in Fig. 1. milling technology as an SM process was carried out for the
The detailed chemical composition (wt. %) of the 316L SS finishing machining of the component. The dry milling pro-
powder is listed in Table 1. The powder has a great deal of cessing parameters mainly include the following: the feed per
small particles that may interfere with fluidity owing to high tooth (fz) was set to 0.25 mm, the milling linear speed (vZ) was
inter-particle friction. However, to a great extent, the fine par- 120 m/min, the amount of axis feed (ap) was 0.5 mm, and the
ticles can increase the specific superficial area of the compos- amount of radial feed (ae) was set to 0.2 mm. The scanning
ite, resulting in high energy absorptivity of the laser beam strategy was rotating by 90° to the previous layer. The detailed
[20]. The powder was dried at a temperature of 373 K in processing parameters of the hybrid additive and subtractive
drying furnaces for the elimination of the moisture and oxygen process were described in our previous work [22, 23]. The
remaining in the powder in the DED forming process, which substrate of 40# steel with dimensions of 160 mm × 160 mm
also occurs under the context of HASP [20]. × 20 mm was set and levelled on the building platform. Prior to
the fabrication process, the plate was milled successively to
remove an extremely thin oxide layer on the surface of the work
2.2 Hybrid additive and subtractive process
piece. The process and schematic of HASP-manufactured
stainless steels with dimensions of 140 mm × 2 mm × 40 mm
The experimental study was produced by the five-axis HASP
are shown in Fig. 3 a and b, respectively.
machine (SVW80C-3D), which is shown in Fig. 2a. The ma-
chine has two processing programs: the laser head of additive
2.3 Characterization of microstructures and
manufacturing directed energy deposition (DED), as shown in
mechanical properties
Fig. 2b, and surface finishing technology by a CNC milling
head, as shown in Fig. 2c. In the HASP, laser deposition is
After HASP, the specimens with dimensions of 5 mm × 5 mm
utilized to deposit layer by layer. A great deal of material
× 5 mm were cut from the substrate by wire electrical
waste, which is commonly seen in the traditional SM process,
discharge machining to microstructural analysis. The mi-
is avoided in the AM process. Furthermore, the powder can be
crostructure of the HASP before and after applying solu-
successfully reused without significantly losing its property.
tion heat treatment to the 316L samples was investigated
However, during the DED process, the surface of the depos-
by a laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM). A sche-
ited layer is uneven with a thin oxide scale and stair steps,
matic of the microstructure analysis specimens taken from
which have a cumulative effect on the requirement of preci-
areas is illustrated in Fig. 3b. The metallographic samples
sion for the part in the Z-axis direction [21]. To overcome this
along the building direction of as-deposited specimens,
shortcoming, when a layer is deposited, the top surface is
known as the cross section of HASP-manufactured com-
processed by CNC milling to achieve a smooth surface of
ponents, underwent cutting, grounding and polishing with
determinate thickness for further deposition. This procedure
classical experimental procedures, and the freshly
is repeated until the required component is completed. At last,
polished sections were etched with a solution (4 g
the inner and outer surface contours are processed by milling
CuSO4, 20 ml HCl and 20 ml distilled water) prior to
process to eliminate the stair steps on the surface and obtain a
microstructure characterization.
The room temperature tensile tests of the 316L samples
Table 1 Chemical compositions (wt. %) of the 316L SS powders before and after the solution treatment were conducted on a
WDW-100E electronic universal material testing machine
Component C Si Mn Cr Ni Mo Fe S/P
(made by Panasonic, Japan) with a maximum load of 100
wt. % 0.02 0.5 1.2 17.0 13.0 2.5 Bal. <0.01 kN and cross-head separation rate of 5 mm/s. The tensile test
samples with the specified dimensions were cut by wire
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Fig. 1 SEM image showing a the 316L SS powder shape and b the particle size range

electrical discharge machining from each thin-wall sample in 2.4 Heat treatment of HASP-produced 316L
each substrate. Fig. 4 shows the dimensions schematic of specimens
HASP-produced tensile specimens according to GB/
T228.1-2010. In addition, there were three samples tested per The HASP-produced 316L specimens experienced dif-
direction of each solution heat treatment and as-produced con- ferent temperatures and times of solution heat treatment
dition separately. Finally, the morphology of the tensile fracture to study the evolution microstructure and mechanical
surfaces was investigated by a super depth of field emission properties.
scanning electron microscope (SEM) at magnifications of 50×
and 5000×. To study the homogeneity of solution heat treat- 1. Five groups of set 1 specimens to investigate the effect of
ment on the HASP-produced samples, Vickers micro-hardness the solution heat treatment temperature on the mechanical
measurements were executed by a 430SVD Vickers properties and microstructure. The first group was not
micro-hardness testing machine (made by Wilson Hardness, heat treated and kept for comparison; those of other
USA) on the polished surface with a load and loading time of groups were solution heat treated at 950 °C, 1000 °C,
1000 gF and 10 s, respectively. At least 10 micro-hardness 1050 °C and 1150 °C and underwent a 3-min heating
measurements were taken for each sample. Last but not least, duration; the next step was water quenching (WQ). The
the values of each micro-hardness point were calculated on the holding time of solution heat treatment of 316L stainless
basis of the mean values of three indentations in the same steel can be obtained according to the following empirical
region of three samples for each group. formula (1):

Fig. 2 a HASP machine (SVW80C-3D), with b CNC milling head, c DED head, d example of the CNC milling process, e example of the additive
deposition process
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2021) 117:3465–3475 3469

a b

Depositing
Z Z direction

Microstructure specimen

O
Y
Tensile specimen
X
X

Substrate

Fig. 3 HASP: a the final HASP-manufactured 316L samples and b the schematic illustration of the HASP-manufactured samples

T ¼ 1:5  h ð1Þ microstructure features. Fig. 5 a presents the microstructural

image of the HASP before applying solution heat treatment
where T is the holding time (measured in minutes) of solution parts, while Fig. 5 b–f show the influence of the solution heat
heat treatment and h is the thickness of the samples. treatment on the surface microstructures of the HASP 316L
specimens. It is important to observe some variation in the
2. To study the influence of holding time of solution heat content of both the σ and δ phase in the γ matrix of each
treatment on the mechanical properties, three groups of set microstructural constituent in the HASP-manufactured mate-
2 samples, including two groups, were solution heat treat- rials. In those micrographs, the lighter-etching stringers are σ
ed for two different solution treatment holding times of phase, and the δ-ferrite is the dark-etching stringers. A proper
3 min and 30 min at 1150 °C, followed by WQ separately, heat treatment can be chosen to adjust the σ and δ phase
and the other group was maintained in the content. An austenitic microstructure with a face centred cubic
as-manufactured state for comparison. Furthermore, heat (FCC) structure can be acquired under a balanceable state on
treatment at 1150 °C for 30 min and then WQ were con- the basis of the chemical constituent of 316L stainless steel,
ducted to gain a completely austenitic microstructure. and small amounts of less prevalent, finely dispersed δ-ferrite
with a body centred cubic (BCC) structure were uniformly
formed at the boundary of austenite grains owing to the exis-
tence of chemical elements (i.e. Mo, Cr and Si), and a rapid
solidification rate can effectively promote the formation of the
3 Results and discussion δ-ferrite. Moreover, there are no carbide precipitates in the
austenitic steel as a result of a lower carbon content, which
3.1 Microstructure features only makes up 0.02% of the 316L powder, as listed in Table 1
[24]. The HASP 316L samples before the heat treatment pro-
The micrograph in Fig. 5 presents the effect of different solu- cess have large amounts of strip morphology δ phase and the
tion heat treatment temperatures and dwell times on the mi- σ phase form in the strip, which results from high thermal
crostructure in the same region of HASP-fabricated thin walls. gradients causing expansion owing to the rapid solidification
And the heat treatment temperature vs time diagram and the rate in a very short time and the partial remelting of previously
samples’ numbers are shown in Fig. 6 to better illustration the deposited layers followed by multiple thermal cycles occur-
ring during each subsequent deposition in the DED process
under the context of HASP, as shown in Fig. 5a.
The response to heat treatment is a more uniform micro-
structure in most of the area of the heat-treated samples com-
pared to the as-manufactured part. The strip structure is re-
duced until it becomes zero, suggesting that a complete mi-
crostructural transformation has occurred. As shown in Fig. 5
b and c, with the increase of temperature, an extremely
fine-grained vermicular morphology of the σ and δ phases is
displayed within the γ matrix. As shown in Fig. 5, when the
temperature is 1050 °C for 3 min, the σ phase is replaced little
Fig. 4 Mechanical properties schematic: the dimensions of tensile by little within the γ matrix, but the δ phase with precious few
samples alter of the primitive δ phase; however, the spheroidization
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Fig. 5 Microstructures of HASP: a HASP without heat treatment; b 950 °C/3 min, WQ; c 1000 °C/3 min, WQ; d 1050 °C/3 min, WQ; e 1150 °C/3 min,
WQ; f 1150 °C/30 min, WQ

Fig. 6 Heat treatment process for

HASP 316L samples: (a) HASP
without heat treatment; (b) 950 °
C/3 min, WQ; (c) 1000 °C/3 min,
WQ; (d) 1050 °C/3 min; (e) 1150
°C/3 min, WQ; (f) 1150 °C/30
min, WQ.
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2021) 117:3465–3475 3471

treatment of all that remained of the δ phase and the amount of values of the samples fabricated by HASP before applying
σ and δ phases decreases compared to that in Fig. 5 b and c. A solution heat treatment are higher than those after applying
dwell time of 3 min for the heat treatment temperature at 1150 solution heat treatment because the σ and δ phases in the γ
°C led to the σ phase completely dissolving within the γ matrix can be seen visibly. The HASP-fabricated one before
matrix and a portion of the δ phase within the γ matrix, and applying solution heat treatment has the maximum
the particle morphology significantly decreased, as shown in micro-hardness value, namely, 227 HV. Compared to the
Fig. 5e. With a heat treatment of 30 min or more at 1150 °C, HASP-fabricated without heat treatment, the solution heat
there is a large difference in the phase content compared to the treatment temperature of 950 °C for 3 min resulted in a sig-
samples treated at 1150 °C for 3 min, which reduced the σ- nificant decrease of hardness. In addition, when further in-
and δ-phase content to virtually zero—indicating that the con- creasing the solution heat treatment temperature, the Vickers
tent of the σ and δ phases fully dissolved within the γ matrix hardness decreased continuously. The average hardness of the
progressively increased over time at that temperature until, HASP-fabricated 316L part underwent a continuous decrease
after approximately 30 min, it transformed into the full aus- from approximately 185 to 172 HV with the rise of the applied
tenitic microstructure, as shown in Fig. 5f. Therefore, as solution heat treatment temperature from 950 to 1000 °C in
shown, changing the heat treatment temperature and dwell the same solution time for 3 min. Further raising the solution
time can effectively change the content of the σ and δ phases. heat treatment temperature until the temperature reached 1050
It can be observed that the fully austenitic microstructure is °C, the Vickers hardness increased with an average value of
very widespread, thus verifying that the adopted solution heat approximately 179 HV because of the effect of hot working
treatment dramatically reduces the content of the δ-ferrite hardening, which caused the hardness to increase. When the
phase. Moreover, it is noted that the content of delta ferrite solution temperature is higher than 1050 °C, up to 1150 °C,
has a significant effect on the mechanical properties of mate- for 3 min, the Vickers hardness decreases a great deal. This is
rials [24]; a detailed discussion of this situation is presented in due to the increase of the solution heat treatment temperature,
the next section. and the content of the σ and δ phases in the γ matrix can
distinctly decrease, which causes the hardness to decrease.
3.2 Mechanical properties Furthermore, the hardness of the solution treatment time for
3 min is significantly higher than that for 30 min, which shows
Hardness is an indicator of great consequence for the mate- that the hardness of 316L SS decreases along with the rise of
rial’s capability to stand up to the plastic deformation. To solution treatment time at the same temperature. The observed
assess the effect of the different solution heat treatment pro- decrease in the hardness can be put down to the decrease of
cesses on the average micro-hardness of the HASP-fabricated δ-phase content along with the increase of solution treatment
316L stainless steel samples, Vickers micro-hardness testing time. A summarization all of the above phenomena can be
was carried out on the cross sections of the samples, and their explained as a superposition of these several types of strength-
corresponding experimental results for the average hardness ening and softening work together on the structure. As is
values are depicted in Fig. 7. Generally, the average hardness known to all, the fully austenitic stainless steel parts demon-
strate a greater possibility of hot-crack formation than those
containing a small number of delta ferrite. It is found that there
are still small amounts of delta ferrite, the austenite grain size
growth is resisted, impurities are uniformly distributed and the
total quantity of grain boundaries rises, which could delay
crack formation. The existence of δ ferrite may arouse the
hardness increase compared with the fully austenitic-single
phase austenitic, as a result of the solid solution strengthening
of the Mo and Ni of the ferritic phase [25]. Furthermore, the
observed increase in the hardness can be put down to the
generation of severe crystal lattice distortions because of small
amounts of less-prevalent, finely dispersed δ-ferrite with BCC
structure and austenitic microstructure with FCC structure;
moreover, uniform distribution has larger obstacles to dislo-
cation motion than the FCC structure. This explains why the
existence of ferrite resulted in the fact that the hardness of the
Fig. 7 Vickers hardness graphs for HASP 316L samples: (a) HASP with-
316L SS was much higher than that of single-phase austenitic
out heat treatment; (b) 950 °C/3 min, WQ; (c) 1000 °C/3 min, WQ; (d) [25, 26].
1050 °C/3 min; (e) 1150 °C/3 min, WQ; (f) 1150 °C/30 min, WQ
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The tensile stress-strain curves gained from the room tem- Table 2 Room-temperature tensile properties of the HASP before and
after solution heat treatment of the 316L tensile specimens as well as
perature testing of 316L parts fabricated by HASP with dif-
comparison with casting
ferent solution heat treatment processes were measured and
contrasted with those of 316L specimens gained from HASP UTS/MPa YS/MPa ETF/%
fabrication before applying solution heat treatment, as shown
HASP without heat treatment 596.6 421.1 43.3
in Fig. 8, and the corresponding results are listed in Table 2.
950 °C/3 min, WQ 560.2 378.7 49.7
The tensile properties of HASP-fabricated 316L samples con-
1000 °C/3 min, WQ 535.5 337.8 51.2
sist of ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength (YS) and
1050 °C/3 min, WQ 530.1 353.6 52.8
elongation to failure (ETF), and their comparison with tradi-
1150 °C/3 min, WQ 509.5 308.1 54.6
tional 316L by casting [22, 23] are listed in Table 2. The
results demonstrate that the HASP before applying solution 1150 °C/30 min, WQ 497.3 242.5 62.4
heat treatment sample displays the maximum UTS and YS of casting 552 262 55
596.6 MPa and 421.1 MPa, respectively, but has the lowest
ETF of 43.3%. The solution heat treatment has a considerable
effect on the mechanical properties of the HASP-produced steadily reduced from 509.5 to 497.3 MPa and from 308.1
316L sample. The results showed that the UTS and YS show to 242.5 MPa, respectively, and the ETF increases to the
a declining trend. Meanwhile, the ETF was increased along maximum, which is from 54.6 up to 62.4%, indicating
with the increase of the solution temperature. When the spec- superior ductility, as the solution holding time increases
imen undergoes solution heat treatment at 950 °C for 3 min, from 3 to 30 min. In addition, another conclusion that can
there is a rather significant reduction in both UTS and YS be drawn from Table 2 is that the tensile strength of the
(560.2 MPa and 378.7 MPa, respectively), while there is a specimen fabricated by HASP with solution heat treat-
great improvement in ETF of 49.7 % compared to the ment temperature at 1150 °C for 30 min is slightly lower
HASP-fabricated one before applying solution heat treatment. than that of traditional 316L by casting material.
The heat treatment temperature rises from 950 to 1000 °C, the Moreover, the ETF is 13.45% higher than that of tradi-
UTS and YS decrease from 560.2 and 378.7 to 535.5 and tional 316L by casting, showing a superior ductility.
337.8 MPa, respectively, while the ETF increases from 49.7 The UTS and YS, as well as ETF, after solution heat treat-
to 51.2%. By continuing to raise the solution heat treatment ment are affected by a couple of factors consisting of the
temperature to 1050 °C for 3 min, the UTS is decreased to number, size and morphology of the grain, content of the δ
530.1 MPa, while the ETF and YS increase to 52.8% and phase, initial hardening rate and recovery rate. As to the
353.6 MPa, respectively. However, when the solution temper- strength of the HASP-fabricated 316L specimen before and
ature reaches 1150 °C for 3 min, the results show that the UTS after applying solution heat treatment samples in this study,
and YS decrease further (509.5 MPa and 308.1 MPa, respec- three sections are to be addressed. First, by increasing the
tively), while the ETF marginally increases to a higher solution heat treatment temperature and time to approximately
value of 54.6% in comparison with the other solution 30 min, the content of the δ phase gradually decreases until
temperature. For the specimens that go through the same finally disappearing, which transforms into the full austenitic
solution heat treatment temperature, the UTS and YS are microstructure. Small amounts of δ-ferrite with BCC structure
before applying solution heat treatment samples change to
austenitic microstructure with FCC structure after applying
heat treatment one. The dislocation motion must overcome
greater resistance of BCC lattice than that of FCC lattice,
which means the BCC structure with the higher yield strength.
The higher misorientation angle results in a higher dislocation
density in heat treatment samples, which may also be useful in
making the higher strain hardening rate. Second, the high
strength of the HASP-fabricated 316L samples can be con-
nected with the small grain size. Grain size had some impact
on the mechanical properties to achieve the rationalization by
the semi-empirical Hall-Petch (HP) formula [27, 28]. In gen-
eral, solution heat treatment of the 316L samples was found to
increase the grain size and the angle boundaries, and this is a
significant reason that reduces the yield strength of the heat
Fig. 8 Stress/strain curves of the HASP before and after being solution treatment samples. Third, the solution heat treatment de-
heat treatment 316L tensile specimens creases the residual stresses that come into being under the
Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2021) 117:3465–3475 3473

DED process during the HASP. Based on the above three without the solution heat treatment. In addition, unmelted
points, in favour of the improvement of the ductility of powder particles could be seen along the fracture surface of
the solution heat treatment 316L samples, this explains the heat treatment HASP-fabricated specimen in Fig. 9d,
why the existence of ferrite leads to the fact that the which may come down to the lack of fusion in the DED
strength was much higher than that of the single-phase process under the context of HASP. This shows that unmelted
austenitic stainless steel. powders are, up to a point, not affected by the homogenizing
The tensile fracture of the 316L stainless steel is intersected heat treatment selected.
with the principal stress at an angle of 45°, the fracture surface
has a fibrous shape and the colour is dark. That is consistent
with the macroscopic appearance of a ductile fracture, which 4 Conclusions
is obviously a ductile fracture. Fig. 9 shows the SEM from the
tensile fracture surfaces of the 316L samples before and after The effects of the solution heat treatment on the microstruc-
applying the solution heat treatment (1050 °C/3 min), respec- tural characterization and the resulting mechanical properties
tively. The heat treatment (1050 °C/3 min) sample after ap- of AISI 316L SS specimens produced by using hybrid addi-
plying the solution heat treatment has an even greater reduc- tive and subtractive processes (HASP) have been studied. The
tion in area than the HASP-fabricated sample before the solu- following main conclusions and findings can be obtained from
tion heat treatment, as shown in Fig. 9 a and b. A large number this study:
of classic dimple structures were observed in the high magni-
fication of the morphologies on the tensile fracture surfaces in 1. When the heat treatment is less than 1050 °C, different
Fig. 9 c and d, which are indicative that the fracture behaviour amounts of the σ and δ phases exist in the γ matrix, and
of HASP-fabricated samples without heat treatment and after with the rise of the solution heat treatment temperature,
applying solution heat treatment to the 316L samples belongs the content of the σ phase and the spheroidization of the
to ductile fracture characteristics. Compared with Fig. 6 c and remaining δ phase progressively decrease. The δ phase
d, the HASP-fabricated sample before applying the solution decreases and the σ phase completely dissolves as the heat
heat treatment has a small dimple size and inhomogeneous treatment temperature increases up to 1150 °C for 3 min.
distribution of the dimples, while the solution heat treated Prolonging the holding time at 1150 °C to 30 min leads to
one is uniform, the dimples are relatively rare and the size is grain coarsening, with the δ and σ phases fully dissolved
relatively large. The fracture morphology analysis shows that into the γ matrix.
there are a number of deep dimples of large size in the micro- 2. The decrease of the σ and δ phases causes the decrease of
structure of the heat treatment sample, which proved that the the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and yield strength
resistance of crack propagation is comparatively large. (YS) but the increase of the elongation to failure (ETF)
Therefore, the toughness is better than that of the sample of 316L samples. The tensile properties of HASP before

Fig. 9 Tensile fracture surfaces of HASP samples in a HASP before surfaces of c HASP before applying solution heat treatment and d after
applying solution heat treatment and b after being solution heat applying solution heat treatment samples
treatment conditions. Higher magnification of dimples on fracture
3474 Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2021) 117:3465–3475

and after applying solution heat treatment to the 316L 2. AlMangour B, Grzesiak D, Borkar T, Yang JM (2018)
Densification behavior, microstructural evolution, and mechanical
samples all exceed industrial demand. With the solution
properties of TiC/316L stainless steel nanocomposites fabricated
temperature and time increases, the size of the grain raises, by selective laser melting. Mater Des 138:119–128
but their number decreases, which will lead to lower the 3. Campanelli SL, Angelastro A, Signorile CG, Casalino G (2017)
Vickers hardness. Compared with HASP before applying Investigation on direct laser powder deposition of 18 Ni (300)
marage steel using mathematical model and experimental charac-
solution heat treatment to the specimens, more ductility
terization. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 89(1-4):885–895
was exhibited for HASP after applying heat treatment to 4. Khorasani AM, Gibson I, Asadnia M, O'Neill W (2018) Mass
the samples. transfer and flow in additive manufacturing of a spherical compo-
3. The best solution treatment for 316L SS specimens with a nent. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 96(9-12):3711–3718
5. Zhu LD, Xu PS, Lan Q, Meng GR, Ren Y, Yang ZC, Xu PH, Liu Z
thickness of 2 mm is as follows: set the temperature to
(2019) Recent research and development status of laser cladding: a
1050 °C for 3 min and then water quench (WQ). The review. Opt Laser Technol 138:106915
internal structure of the sample is uniform; the mechanical 6. AlMangour B, Baek MS, Grzesiak D, Lee KA (2018)
properties are obviously improved, including the Strengthening of stainless steel by titanium carbide addition and
grain refinement during selective laser melting. Mater Sci Eng A
hardness, which increases to 179 HV; the tensile
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strength and yield strength are 530.1 MPa and 353.6 7. Li S, Wei QS, Shi YS, Chua CK, Zhu ZC, Zhang DQ (2015)
MPa, respectively; and the elongation to failure is as Microstructure characteristics of Inconel 625 superalloy
high as 52.8%. manufactured by selective laser melting. J Mater Sci Technol 31
4. These findings could provide the foundation for optimiz- (9):946–952
8. Zhu Z, Dhokia V, Newman ST, Nassehi A (2014) Application of a
ing the solution heat treatment to fabricate 316L compo- hybrid process for high precision manufacture of difficult to ma-
nents using HASP processing technologies to achieve ma- chine prismatic parts. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 74(5-8):1115–1132
terials with specific microstructure and mechanical prop- 9. Yadollahi A, Shamsaei N, Thompson SM, Seely DW (2015)
erties for all sorts of applications. Effects of process time interval and heat treatment on the mechan-
ical and microstructural properties of direct laser deposited 316L
stainless steel. Mater Sci Eng A 644:171–183
10. Zhu ZC, Dhokia V, Nassehi A, Newman ST (2016) Investigation of
Acknowledgements The authors sincerely thank Mr. Y.D. Gong, for part distortions as a result of hybrid manufacturing. Robot Comput
their critical discussion and reading during manuscript preparation. Integr Manuf 37:23–32
11. Liu JK, To AC (2017) Topology optimization for hybrid additive-
Code availability Not applicable. subtractive manufacturing. Struct Multidiscipl Optim 55(4):1281–
1299
Author contribution Shuoshuo Qu: investigation, methodology, experi- 12. Kianersi D, Mostafaei A, Amadeh AA (2014) Resistance spot
ment, writing—original draft, experiment. Yadong Gong: conceptualiza- welding joints of AISI 316L austenitic stainless steel sheets: phase
tion, funding acquisition, reviewed and edited the manuscript, supervi- transformations, mechanical properties and microstructure charac-
sion. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. terizations. Mater Des 61:251–263
13. Lippold JC, Savage VF (1979) Solidification of austenitic stainless
Funding This research has been supported by the National Natural steel weldments: part I-a proposed mechanism. Weld J 58:362–374
Science Foundation of China under Grant No.51775100 and 14. Ben Rhouma A, Amadou T, Sidhom H, Braham C (2017)
No.51875321, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Correlation between microstructure and intergranular corrosion be-
Universities under Grant No.N180306001. havior of low delta-ferrite content AISI 316L aged in the range 550-
700 degrees C. J Alloys Compd 708:871–886
15. Wang CC, Tan XP, Liu EJ, Tor SB (2018) Process parameter op-
Declaration timization and mechanical properties for additively manufactured
stainless steel 316L parts by selective electron beam melting. Mater
Ethics approval The authors state that the present work is in compliance Des 147:157–166
with the ethical standards. 16. Lo KH, Shek CH, Lai JKL (2009) Recent developments in stainless
steels. Mater Sci Eng R Rep 65(4-6):39–104
Consent to participate Not applicable. 17. Olabi AG, Hashmi MSJ (1995) The effect of post-weld heat-treat-
ment on mechanical-properties and residual-stresses mapping in
welded structural steel. J Mater Process Technol 55(2):117–122
Consent to publish All authors agree to publish. 18. Zhu HH, Fuh JYH, Lu L (2007) The influence of powder apparent
density on the density in direct laser-sintered metallic parts. Int J
Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Mach Tools Manuf 47(2):294–298
19. Yadroitsev I, Krakhmalev P, Yadroitsava I (2015) Hierarchical de-
sign principles of selective laser melting for high quality metallic
objects. Addit Manuf 7:45–56
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