An additive manufacturing technique, wherein a first layer of powdered material is spread on a build platform, with or without a workpiece positioned therein, the build platform is in a part building module of an additive manufacturing apparatus, the powdered material is a precipitation-hardened superalloy such as a Nickel-based superalloy, for example, a Nickel-based superalloy having a percentage by volume of gamma prime phase equal to or greater than 45 percentage by volume, the first layer forms at least a part of a powder bed formed of the powdered material on the build platform, the powdered material of the first layer is heated to a temperature between 65 percent and 70 percent of a liquidus temperature of the precipitation-hardened superalloy and, after the aforementioned pre-heating, portions of a surface of the first layer are selectively scanned by using an energy beam arrangement to melt or sinter the selectively scanned portions.
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