12th Tooling Conference & Exhibition - Tooling 2022

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is becoming more common as manufacturing technique and the obvious benefits of freedom of design and production speed can clearly be utilized in the manufacturing of tools and molds. One of the most important criteria in producing molds for plastic injection is service life. This paper evaluates a mold produced using the conventional machining method versus mold...

In this paper, a concept for hybrid forming tools with complex shape and conformal cooling channels is outlined. By using indirect additive manufacturing (AM) of sand molds via Binder Jetting technology and state of the art casting process as well as Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) and the latest of AM tool steel powder development to manufacture a complex press hardening tool, the authors show...

Wire is all around us and it forms joints in our structures, stabilizes our tires and transports electricity. In almost every complex product there are components made from wire. In wire drawing hot rolled material is drawn through a single or a series of tools called drawing dies, reducing the cross-section and enhancing the mechanical properties of the material. The tribological conditions...

Laser additive manufacturing enables the one-step fabrication of complex parts. This technology has been applied for tooling due to advantages such as fast tool development, low material costs and high geometry freedom. However, pores and carbide networks, which are not avoidable from the LPBF process, deteriorate the fatigue strength significantly. Hot isostatic pressing (HIP) with integrated...

Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) is an additive manufacturing process that enables the production of complex shaped components. Conventional high-carbon tool steels tend to cracking and warping during LPBF due to internal stresses caused by the rapid solidification. Expensive atomization and long lead times for powder generate high costs for material development in this processing route.
The...

Die casting tools with improved cooling by conformal cooling produced using additive manufacturing allow to reduce cycle times and improve the part quality. Most available tooling materials for additive manufacturing are however, either not enough heat resistant or difficult to print. The paper presents Pearl®Micro TS700, an innovative 5% chromium, precipitation hardening tool steel, with a...

The use of Laser Additive Manufacturing (LAM) techniques, such as Laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) or Laser Directed Energy Deposition (L-DED) for the manufacturing of forming tools has gained increasing interest in both industry and academia due to the processes’ high geometrical flexibility. LAM allows for a layer-wise build-up of parts based on 3D-CAD-data by either the local melting of a...

The industry segment of tooling applications has demonstrated significant developments in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM) in the last decade. Progressing all the way from prototyping to high Technology Readiness Levels (TRL), thus enabling production capabilities. Especially, in relationship to Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) and Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) technologies. The latest...

Abstract
Additive manufacturing methods are applied in various fields of industry because of advantages like rapid production of parts or freedom in design. In most cases materials with a low amount of carbon, e.g. stainless steels, are used for 3D-printing. An important and widely used representative of these grades is the material 1.4404 (316L), which is well established because of an easy...

Stainless austenitic steels like the 316L are very popular in the field of Additive Manufacturing. This clearly is due to the easy processability of austenitc steels in the AM process. Austentic steels can be printed with little distortion, which means that less support structures are required. This again reduces cost-intensive build-time as well as post-processing requirements. One...

Hot stamping tools require cooling channels, preferably with a variety of sizes and a high positioning flexibility. Conventionally, these are machined. This represents a disadvantage because of the limited accessibility for milling tools and the low flexibility. By means of the Directed Energy Deposition (DED) process a flexible design of the cooling channels is possible. For this,...

Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) is one of the promising processes for additive manufacturing thanks to its ability to produce practically large metallic parts and complex geometries in a cost-effective manner and short lead time. Moreover, it can be utilized for reparation and cladding, making it an outstanding choice for tooling and molding. In the current work, the heat treatment behavior of...

The public funded project AddSteel aims to develop functionally adapted steel materials for additive manufacturing. Based on the AM process laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) the holistic process chain, including alloy design, powder atomization, additive manufacturing and post heat treatment is considered to achieve this objective.
Tool steels are usually characterized by higher carbon content...

Thanks to its high hardness and cracking resistance in hot-working operations, AISI H13 is acknowledged as all-around steel for die making in high-pressure die casting, extrusion, and hot stamping. In addition, the opportunities offered by Additive Manufacturing (AM) to fabricate complex shapes and closed channels strongly meet the needs of hot-work tools designers but typically are not easily...

Near full-dense and crack-free AISI H13 hot work tool steel was fabricated using laser-directed energy deposition (L-DED). Two different heat treatment schedules, i.e., direct tempering of the as-built part (DT) and austenitization and quenching prior to tempering (QT), were selected. The effect of heat treatment on the microstructure, hardness, fracture toughness (Kapp), and softening...

Böhler W360 ISOBLOC is well known as high performance hot work tool steel. The main characteristics are high thermal and wear stability, hardness in use up to 57 HRC and particularly the resistance against crack propagation. Therefore the main applications are as thermal and mechanical highly stressed tools among others for Al high pressure die casting (HPDC) inserts.
Nowadays the...

Electron beam powder bed fusion (E-PBF) is a promising additive manufacturing method efficiently used for materials susceptible to thermal cracks, like high-alloy cold work tool steels. The method provides high build chamber temperature, pre-heating of the build and slow cooling reducing thermal stresses during manufacturing. In this investigation, wear performance of conventional and E-PBF...