As additive manufacturing(AM)technology develops quickly and receives increasing attention recently,some experiments were performed to obtain the mechanical properties of metallic alloy manufactured by AM,but few involves the anisotropic mechanical models of the “new material”.This paper is focused on the study of the relationship between the mechanical properties and their variability with manufacturing orientation for specimens of austenitic stainless steel—AISI 316 L made by the technology of selective laser melting(SLM).Mechanical characteristics of the alloy were determined by tensile testing,along with non-liner analysis for mechanics modelling.Based von Mises yield criterion,we finally establish a plastic yield function for metallic alloy made by SLM,introducing a new parameter with anisotropy taking into consideration.This is important for future applications of the SLM technology for producing metallic alloy parts,providing mechanical basis during designing and manufacturing processes.