Effect of shot peening on corrosion resistance of additive manufactured 17-4PH steel

Components produced by additive manufacturing (AM) via direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) have typical as-fabricated surface defects. As a result, surface properties of AM products should be modified to increase their strength, anti-wear behavior, and at the same time ensure their high corrosion resistance. Surface modification via shot peening (SP) is considered suitable for AM of engineering devices made of 17-4PH (X5CrNiCuNb16-4) stainless steel. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of three types of peening media (CrNi steel shot, glass, and ceramic beads) on the corrosion resistance of specimens of DMLS 17-4PH stainless steel. Results demonstrated that SP caused steel microstructure refinement and induced both martensite (α) formation and retained austenite (γ) reduction. 17-4PH specimens peened showed the increase in surface hardness of 255, 281, and 260 HV_0.2 for ceramic, glass, and steel, respectively. DMLS 17-4PH specimens modified by SP exhibited different surface morphology, hardness, and microstructure and thus, these properties affect corrosion performance. The results implied that steel shot peened with steel shot showed the highest resistance to corrosion processes (I_corr = 0.019 μA/cm²), slightly worse with glass (I_corr = 0.227 μA/cm²) and ceramics (I_corr = 0.660 μA/cm²) peened. In the case of ceramic and glass beads, it was possible to confirm the presence of the above-mentioned particles in the surface layer after SP.