**4. Conclusions**

The paper reports the characterization of A357.0 specimens produced by means of LPBF and contributes to the knowledge base of this very recent alloy. The results allow for the assertion of the following:


thin grains that extend along the *Z* direction. Both the shear- and the tensile rupture morphologies account for the anisotropy measured for the mechanical properties, since the fibre microstructure varies its reinforcing effectiveness depending on its relative orientation as compared to that of the applied stresses.

• Both for shear loads and for tensile ones, dimpled rupture is an important failure mode, but it acts synergistically with the formation of parallel slip bands. Regardless of the type of load applied macroscopically to the part, when the local stress state on the elongated grains is tensile, the rupture mode is a very fine dimple coalescence. When the fibre structure is locally subjected to shear stresses, which act tangentially to the elongated grains, rupture occurs by shear plastic flow, in which the material is spread over the surface. The extension of the plastic flow area increases as shear stresses become parallel to the build layers.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** Grateful acknowledgements are made by the author to Eng. Andrea Comin (Maserati S.pA) for the technical support and to Andrea Pasquali, general manager of ZARE Srl (Boretto, RE, Italy), for the technical support and for the construction of the specimens.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.
