Abstract
The influence of laser power on the microstructure of 17-4 PH stainless steel produced by
laser metal deposition was investigated. Multiple-track of 17-4 stainless steel powder was deposited
on 316 stainless steel substrate using laser metal deposition, an additive manufacturing process. In
this research, laser power was varied between 1.0 kW and 2.6 kW with scanning speed fixed at 1.2
m/s. The powder flow rate and the gas flow rate were also kept constant at values of 5 g/min and 2
l/min respectively. The microstructure was studied under optical microscope and it revealed that the
microstructure was dendritic in structure with finer and lesser δ-ferrite at low laser power while the
appearance of coarse and more δ-ferrite are seen at higher laser power.