In this study, the research on 316L steel manufactured additively using two commercially available techniques, Material Extrusion (MEX) and Laser Powder Bed Fusion of Metals (PBF-LB/M), were compared. The additive manufacturing (AM) process based on powder bed synthesis is of great interest in the production of metal parts. One of the most interesting alternatives to PBF-LB/M, are techniques based on material extrusion due to the significant initial cost reduction. Therefore, the paper compares these two different methods of AM technologies for metals. The investigations involved determining the density of the printed samples, assessing their surface roughness in two printing planes, examining their microstructures including determining their porosity and density, and measuring their hardness. The tests carried out make it possible to determine the durability, and quality of the obtained sample parts, as well as to assess their strength. The conducted research revealed that samples fabricated using the PBF-LB/M technology exhibited approximately 3% lower porosity compared to those produced using the MEX technology. Additionally, it was observed that the hardness of PBF-LB/M samples was more than twice as high as that of the samples manufactured using the MEX technology.

Faculty of Military Technology University of Defence 66210 Brno Czech Republic

Institute of Armaments Technology Faculty of Mechatronics Armaments and Aerospace Military University of Technology General Sylwester Kaliski Street 2 00 908 Warsaw Poland

Institute of Civil Engineering Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodesy Military University of Technology General Sylwester Kaliski Street 2 00 908 Warsaw Poland

Institute of Robots and Machine Design Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Military University of Technology General Sylwester Kaliski Street 2 00 908 Warsaw Poland

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