Corrosion Performance of 17-4 PH Stainless Steel Processed by Laser-Powder Bed Fusion

Graduate #108
Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Civil/Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineering

Talia Harper - Alabama State University
Co-Author(s): Harish Irrinki,University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, Shreekumar Pillai, Alabama State University, Montgomery, Alabama, Gautam Gupta, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, Sundar Atre, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky

Naval equipment and certain medical implants are in aqueous solutions for long periods of time. These metal products can eventually deteriorate and can be hard to replace. When it comes to metal implants, deteriorating metal can be very poisonous to the human body. These replacements and naval equipment can be very expensive to replace and cost the governments millions of dollars to replace every year. In this experiment, 3D printing was used to create a cheaper method of making naval products and medical implants that could withstand corrosion in aqueous solutions for longer periods of time.
Four samples of metal were created using laser-power bed fusion (L-PBF) 3D printing. One sample was a Gas atomized powder sample and three were from water atomized powder. Then the four samples were welded, smoothed, and buffed out for the experiment. Each sample was then placed in a salt water solution for a designated period of time, while a certain level of voltage was sent through the water hitting the metal. As the shocks hit the metal a certain amount of the metal was lost and measured. After all the samples were done, images from optical microscopy were taken to see in depth how the water solution and voltage affected the different metals. The gas and fine water atomized powder metal sample gave the best results. These two had the least amount of metal loss (0.015 mm/year) even though there was some corrosion of the metal surfaces, and they will be used for further testing in higher concentrated salt water solutions. Then they will be tested in naval equipment environments and in conditions simulating medical implant usage.

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Funder Acknowledgement(s): The authors would like to thank Walmart Foundation for funding this research. This research was also supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation-CREST (HRD-1241701), and National Institutes of Health-MBRS-RISE (1R25GM106995-01).

Faculty Advisor: Shreekumar Pillai, spillai@alasu.edu

Role: I mixed the salt water solution, and set up the experiment. I plugged in the numbers for the correct voltage and time. When the experiment finished, I created an excel sheet for the information that was reported. I took optical microscopy pictures of the samples to show how each sample was affected by the solution and voltage.