Additive manufacturing (AM) of metallic materials has gained recently significant popularity thanks to the fact that it enables high geometrical complexity, extreme structural optimization and rapid product development. Consequently, a systematic research on the impact of process parameters of additive technology on the mechanical properties is required, as these properties are crucial for a reliable and efficient design of components and systems. Material characterization can be conducted using standardized cyclic tensile – compression experimental tests that belong to destructive techniques, which are, moreover, often long and expensive; an alternative is to adopt a non-invasive nanoindentation method. Mechanical properties are then used as input data in numerical simulations that are a crucial part of the design process. The first criterion for model selection is, in turn, the capability of a material model, adopted in numerical simulations, to correctly represent the behaviour of the material observed during the experiments.