Direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), due to its. flexibility in materials and shapes, would be especially interesting to produce complex shaped porous metallic components. In the present work, processing conditions and microstructural characteristics of direct laser sintered porous 316L stainless steel components were studied. It was found that a partial melting mechanism of powders gave a high feasibility in obtaining porous sintered structures possessing porosities of similar to 21-similar to 55%. Linear energy density (LED), which was de. fined by the ratio of laser power to scan speed, was used to tailor the laser sintering mechanism. A moderate LED of similar to 3400-similar to 6000 J/m and a lower scan speed less than 0.06 m/s proved to be feasible. With the favorable sintering mechanism prevailed, lowering laser power or increasing scan speed, scan line spacing, and powder layer thickness generally led to a higher porosity. Metallurgical mechanisms of pore formation during DMLS were addressed. It showed that the presence of pores was through: (i) the formation of liquid bridges between partially melted particles during laser irradiation; and (ii) the growth of sintering necks during solidi. cation, leaving residual pores between solidified metallic agglomerates. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.