Microstructure Tailoring in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF): Strategies, Challenges, and Future Outlooks

Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) has emerged as a transformative technology for fabricating complex components with high precision. The microstructure of the manufactured parts plays a critical role in determining the mechanical properties. This review provides a comprehensive review of microstructure tailoring strategies employed during L-PBF. Various factors influencing microstructure, i.e., process parameters, baseplate crystallography and temperature, laser beams, and auxiliary fields are discussed. Furthermore, the challenges and future work in microstructure manipulation for L-PBF are highlighted, emphasizing the significance of physic-informed machine learning methods. This review provides insights that will aid researchers in achieving desired microstructures and thus optimal mechanical properties for the LPBF-processed alloys.