Adjustable magnetic and wear properties of gradient Al–stainless steel materials fabricated by direct energy deposition

Additive manufacturing enables the efficient production of intricate parts and the creation of multi-material mixtures of functionally graded materials. Such materials can demonstrate spatially variable mechanical and functional properties and thus can be attractive for various applications. In this work, we have produced gradient materials from a mixture of 316L stainless steel and pure Al by direct energy deposition. It was revealed that a relatively small (5–10 wt.%) addition of Al can turn paramagnetic steel into the ferromagnetic material with saturation magnetization up to 118 emu g⁻¹ and enhance the wear resistance from \(\sim 6\times {10}^{-4}\) $\sim 6\times {10}^{-4}$ to \(\sim 1.5-3.0\times {10}^{-5}\) $\sim 1.5-3.0\times {10}^{-5}$ \({\text{mm}}^{2}/\text{N}/\text{m}\) ${\text{mm}}^2/\text{N}/\text{m}$ . The changes in properties were associated with the transformation of the FCC structure of steel to dual-phase BCC + B2, which occurred in reasonable agreement with the CALPHAD calculations. The obtained gradient materials can be possibly used for cost-effective shielding applications.