Wear and Corrosion Behavior of a Stainless Steel Composite Produced by Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF)

Brenda Juliet Martins Freitas
Materials Engineer
Federal University of Technology – Paraná (UTFPR)

Thursday, November 20
9 - 10 a.m.
*Location: Callaway/GTMI bldg.,
Room 114

Coffee and light refreshments provided. 

*This is an in-person only event and will not be streamed virtually.

Register here.

Abstract: Additive manufacturing of metallic alloys often leads to defects such as cracking, anisotropy, brittleness, and coarse columnar grains. In this study, boron-containing stainless steel composites were successfully fabricated by Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF). The addition of boron transformed coarse columnar grains (~200 µm) into equiaxed ultrafine grains (~1 µm). Moreover, boron promoted the in-situ formation of nanometric Cr₂B precipitates decorating the grain boundaries. The printed samples exhibited comparable corrosion resistance to commercial duplex stainless steels in chloride-rich environments, while showing a marked enhancement in hardness and wear resistance, attributed to the grain refinement and presence of hard borides. These results demonstrate that controlled boron addition is a promising strategy for microstructural tailoring and surface performance improvement in stainless steels produced by additive manufacturing.

Bio: Dr. Brenda Juliet Martins Freitas is a Materials Engineer from the Federal University of Technology – Paraná (UTFPR). She holds a Master’s and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar, Brazil), with a dual-degree Ph.D. from Graz University of Technology (Austria). Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher at UFSCar in collaboration with Petrobras, and a temporary lecturer at the Department of Materials Engineering (DEMa/UFSCar). Her research focuses on additive manufacturing of metallic materials, hydrogen embrittlement in titanium alloys, and corrosion behavior of advanced alloys.