Design and characterization of a cobalt-free stainless maraging steel for laser-based powder bed fusion

•A Co-free stainless maraging steel for laser-based powder bed fusion was successfully designed using a computation alloy design approach.•The material showed excellent printability with a porosity of <0.05% and a fully martensitic microstructure in the as-built condition.•Aging at 500 °C was performed directly after printing, where an increase from 310 HV5 to 519 HV5 was noted.•Ni, Al, Ti, Nb, Mn and Si were found to readily form precipitates – believed to be γ′ after 3 h.•The precipitates were also found to be resistant to coarsening, retaining high hardness even after 90 h at 500 °C.