Femtosecond lasers are proposed to overcome some of the drawbacks that nowadays exist in Metal Additive Manufacturing (AM), a robust manufacturing technology that offers many advantages over traditional methods. Although femtosecond lasers are not widely used for 3D manufacturing, the allow a more precisely control of the energy contributed to the powder bed, due to their smaller Heat-Affected Zone (HAZ).

In our work, we studied the processing parameters for an own-produced small particle stainless steel powder with a femtosecond laser by means of Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). We demonstrated the feasibility of the process itself and we studied the influence of the main parameters; a controlled heat accumulation can be achieved by precisely controlling different parameters, enabling the future fabrication of various structures where small and precise geometries are required.