RT journal article T1 Substrate integration in stainless steel components fabricated by plasma arc-directed energy deposition A1 Segovia Guerrero, Luis A1 Baladés Ruiz, Nuria A1 Garrido García, Carmen A1 Gil Mena, Antonio José A1 Fernández Vidal, Severo Raúl A1 Sales Lérida, David A2 Ciencia de los Materiales e Ingeniería Metalúrgica y Química Inorgánica A2 Ingeniería Eléctrica A2 Ingeniería Industrial e Ingeniería Civil A2 Ingeniería Mecánica y Diseño Industrial K1 Double sided printing K1 Mechanical properties K1 Stainless steel K1 Directed energy deposition AB Directed energy deposition process needs a substrate, as a base for depositing layers of material, which is discarded after manufacturing. This study showed the feasibility of incorporating a substrate into the final product to reduce material waste and energy. For this purpose, double sided walls-substrate austenitic stainless steel structures were produced by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM). To assess the viability of this approach, mechanical tests such as tensile, hardness, and impact flexure tests were conducted on printed specimens, which were extracted through electrical discharge machining. This was completed with a fractographic analysis of the tested samples. A metallographic analysis was also performed both to assess the internal structure and to evaluate the effects of substrate integration on mechanical properties, thus showing various structural transitions across the bead-substrate interface, including the presence of vermicular and skeletal ferrite within an austenitic matrix. An EDX analysis showed chemical composition variations across the interface. Additionally, energy and cost assessments showed an 8% reduction in material usage, an 8.7% reduction in manufacturing time and an 8.4% reduction in energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions through substrate integration. The results confirmed the feasibility of integrating substrates into WAAM-fabricated components while maintaining mechanical characteristics within the expected range for stainless steel structures. PB Springer Nature Link SN 2363-9520 YR 2025 FD 2025 LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/37316 UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/37316 LA eng DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz RD 21-sep-2026