Additive manufacturing (AM) of metallic materials is increasingly being adopted in
numerous sectors, such as biomedicine, aerospace or automotive industries, due to its versatility
in the creation of complex geometries and the minimisation of material waste when compared to
traditional subtractive methods. In order to ensure a reliable operation of these parts, however, an
in-depth study of the effect of additive manufacturing on mechanical properties, including tensile,
fatigue and fracture resistance, is necessary. Among the vast number of methods and materials, this
project is focused in one of the most promising techniques for the industry: Selective Laser Melting
(SLM) for the production of a tools steel, in particular C300 steel components for the automotive sector.
The main objective of this paper is to optimise some of the key parameters in the printing process,
such as laser power, laser speed and hatch spacing. These variables are essential to obtain parts with
good resistance. To that purpose, tensile tests were performed in 3D printed specimens, and then
elastoplastic properties were extracted, organised and analysed through a design of experiments for
the subsequent output fitting using the response surface methodology.
