Effect of Morphology and Particle Size Distribution on the Reusability of 15-5 Precipitation Hardening Stainless Steel Powder in Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process

Laser powder bed fusion technique has been considered as one of the best metal additive manufacturing processes considering the part quality and dimensional accuracy. However, the high cost of metal powders makes it difficult to afford for all kinds of applications. Reusability of the powders can overcome this issue, but the effect on various material properties is still in research stage. This paper analyzes the morphology and powder size distribution of 15-5 precipitation hardening stainless steel powders which were reused up to ten times. The powder size distribution was found to be slightly different for ten times reused powder as compared to raw powder and consisted of finer as well as agglomerated particles. The oxygen content was found to be more for the one time and five time recycled powder; however, for the ten time recycled powder, the oxygen content was found to be less.