Additive manufacturing of metals is a key technology and an emerging industrial sector enabling the manufacture of highly specialized and advanced components. It's outstanding advantages are the geometric flexibility and the elimination of tools compared to conventional manufacturing techniques. However, multiple directional dependencies lead to an anisotropic material behaviour, rendering the material description more complicated. Samples used for this study were fabricated from the age‐hardenable alloy AlSi10Mg, focusing on fluctuating material properties in relation to differing built orientations. In addition, the effect of thermal post treatment was considered. Comprehensive tensile tests employing a lateral strain sensor were performed, in order to determine the transverse contraction during loading and to quantify directional dependencies. The Young's modulus varied between 66 GPa and 68 GPa, however the Poisson's ratio ranged between 0.31 and 0.39. Investigations on the fractured faces by means of scanning electron microscopy investigations were also part of this study.

Laser powder bed fusion has become one of the major techniques within metal additive manufacturing, especially when delicate structures and high geometric accuracy are concerned. Lately, the awareness of the material-specific macroscopic anisotropy has risen and led to widespread investigations on the static mechanical strength. However, little is known about the fracture behavior of the layer-wise fabricated metal components and their affinity of crack propagation between consecutive layers, which is particularly important for aluminium-silicon alloys containing embrittled zones in double-irradiated areas. A recent study indicated that there is a significant drop in fracture toughness in case the crack growth direction is parallel to the layering. To investigate this matter further and to shed light on the fracture toughness behavior in the range of a 0°-45° angle offset between the crack growth direction relative to the layering, notched samples with varying polar angles were subjected to mode I fracture toughness testing. Our results indicate that the fracture toughness is an almoststable characteristic up to a mismatch of about 20° between the crack propagation path and the layering, at which point the fracture toughness decreases by up to 10%.

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