The effect of stress relieving on the corrosion resistance of aluminum alloy obtained by 3D printing technology (SLM)

This study focuses on the effect of stress relieving on the corrosion resistance of aluminium alloy Al10SiMg obtained by Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology using selective laser melting (SLM) process. The corrosion performance was evaluated by immersion test and potentiodynamic polarization analysis. All the corrosion tests were carried out in 3.5% NaCl solution at ambient temperature to simulate marine environment. The microstructure and internal stresses were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The results obtained illustrate the beneficial effect of stress relieving on the corrosion resistance of the SLM alloy. This was mainly due to the reduction of internal and surface stresses that inherently develop as part of the rapid solidification conditions that exist during the laser printing process.