Wear performance of metal parts fabricated by selective laser melting: a literature review

Selective laser melting (SLM) is one type of additive manufacturing which produces metal parts by powder bed fusion. Since the materials undergo repeated and sharp heating/cooling cycles, the SLMed parts have unique microstructures. The relations among SLM processing parameters, resultant microstructures, and mechanical properties have been investigated by many researchers. However, the wear performance of SLMed materials under various contact conditions has not been carried out until recently. This paper is a presentation of previous and recent research related to wear performance. This is a crucial aspect if SLM is to be expanded to produce friction pairs. Wear rates and mechanisms of the SLMed materials under dry, boundary lubrication, cavitation erosion, and corrosion conditions are discussed and compared with conventionally processed (CP) materials. SLMed materials benefit from fine grains and high hardness, which have higher wear resistance than CP materials. Moreover, a unique tribo-layer on the surface of the SLMed part is found to protect the bulk material under boundary lubrication conditions. An optimized combination of processing parameters increases part density, which further improves the wear resistance. Future work includes studying the influence of pores on the deforming and lubricating behaviors from dry conditions to different lubrication regimes. The final target is to actively control the processing parameters to obtain desirable material properties for improving wear performance.