Within Additive Manufacturing technologies, Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) is one of the leading processes to build 3D free geometries and to coat or repair damaged surfaces. In fact, LMD is increasingly used to build solid piece where the overlapped of contiguous clads and layer by layer are necessary.

The main goal of this work is to study the mechanical behavior of parts of an additive material compared to conventional pieces and other additive pieces found in the literature.

In order to achieve the optimal combination of LMD process parameters to fabricate the solid parts, , Laser power, process speed and powder flow values have been characterized fabricating single clads and layer by layer applying the conventional metallography techniques, the effective dimensions of fabricated clads (dilution, height and width) have been measured.

For the study of mechanical properties, LMD samples of AISI 316L have been fabricated to characterize the Tensile Strength behavior of additive material. Besides, in the cross section of the fabricated pieces by LMD process Vickers hardness measures have been made. In addition, microstructural characterization has been carried out by Optical Microscopy (OM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

The expected results of mechanical properties, both from tensile strength and hardness tests, had been similar to supplier’s data sheet and to annealed material of AISI 316L.