Effects of cladding path on workpiece geometry and impact toughness in Directed Energy Deposition of 316L stainless steel

The cladding path in Directed Energy Deposition (DED) influences the workpiece quality. An inappropriate cladding path easily deteriorates the geometric accuracy at the workpiece corner. This study investigated the influence of the cladding path on the workpiece quality of 316L stainless steel. The corner geometries for different cladding paths were compared. Charpy impact tests were conducted to investigate the impact toughness of the workpiece. The impact toughness of 316L manufactured by DED is comparable to the conventional material. The simple one directional path decreased the impact toughness by approximately 20% compared to the toughness for bidirectional paths.