RESUMEN
The aim of this work is to study the phase transformations, microstructures, and mechanical properties of martensitic stainless steel (MSS) 410 deposits produced by laser powder-directed energy deposition (LP-DED) additive manufacturing. The LP-DED MSS 410 deposits underwent post-heat treatment, which included austenitizing at 980 °C for 3 h, followed by different tempering treatments at the temperatures of 250, 600, and 750 °C for 5 h, respectively. The analyses of phase transformations and microstructural evolutions of LP-DED MSS 410 were carried out using X-ray diffraction, SEM-EDS, and EBSD. Vickers hardness and tensile strength properties were also measured to analyze the effects of the different tempering heat treatments. It revealed that the as-built MSS 410 has very fine lath martensite, high hardness of about 480 HV1.0, and tensile strength of about 1280 MPa, but elongation was much lower than the post-heat-treated ones. Precipitations of chromium carbide (Cr23C6) were most commonly observed at the grain boundaries and the entire matrix at the tempering temperatures of 600 °C and 750 °C. In general, the tensile strength decreased from 1381 MPa to 688 MPa as tempering temperatures increased to 750 °C from 250 °C. Additionally, as the tempering temperature increased, the chromium carbide and tempered martensite structures became coarser.