Abstract—It has been found that austenitic stainless steel produced by selective laser melting undergoes successive recovery, polygonization, and recrystallization as the heating temperature increases, similarly to deformed steel. The temperatures of structural transformations are lower than those after deformation. An unusual chessboard-type structure was discovered during heating to 650–700°C (in the temperature range of incomplete recrystallization). Such structure develops as the intersection of mutually perpendicular bands of small recrystallized grains.