Metal Additive Manufacturing Conference 2019

Electron Beam Melting (EBM) is one of the most promising techniques within Metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) techniques, which currently is for the fabrication of high performance components for the aerospace and medical industries, mostly. Among the industrial applications envisioned for the future of EBM, the fabrication of high carbon steels for the tooling industry is of great interest. In this study, martensitic highly alloyed (Cr-Mo-V) cold-work tool steel was processed by EBM. A suitable heat treatment was proposed in order to obtain an optimal microstructure, which was studied by means of optical and scanning-electron microscopy. The mechanical behaviour of the material was characterized by means of compression testing and the tribological performance was assessed by means of abrasive wear tests. The influence of build-direction was further studied with regard to these characteristics. The results obtained were compared with those obtained from the conventionally processed material through the powder metallurgy route.