Layer-wise engineering of grain orientation (LEGO) in laser powder bed fusion of stainless steel 316L

Additive manufacturing (AM) has opened new possibilities for site-specific microstructure control of metal alloys. In laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) AM, the microstructure can be locally tailored by manipulating the solidification conditions point to point. In this work, we demonstrate this capability by varying the laser scanning angle during LPBF to produce stainless steel samples with controlled crystallographic textures. The resulting microstructures range from strongly textured blocks of arbitrary thickness and shape to gradient crystallographic textures. This strategy paves the way to a new generation of additively manufactured metals with optimized, site-specific properties to suit a wide range of applications.