Experimental investigations of processing the high carbon cold-work tool steel 1.2358 by laser metal deposition for the additive manufacturing of cold forging tools

In the field of tool making, Laser Beam Melting of metals has been already used to fabricate injection moulds with complex inner cooling channels made out of the low-carbon maraging tool steel X3NiCoMoTi18-9-5 (1.2709). Furthermore, laser metal deposition (LMD) is an established technology for the repair of worn-out tools and the deposition of wear resistance coatings based on metal matrix composites. However, at the moment, the processing of high-carbon tool steels for the additive manufacturing of complete cold forging tools has only been investigated to a limited extent. Within the scope of the presented research, the processing of the high-carbon cold-work tool steel 60CrMoV18-5 (1.2358) by LMD is analyzed in detail. In this context, geometrically simple cuboidal structures are directly generated on dissimilar substrate plates made out of the hot-work tool steel X37CrMoV5-1(1.2343) via the application of various process parameter combinations. The manufactured cuboidal structures are metallographically prepared and subsequently analyzed with respect to substrate bonding, relative density, defect formation, microstructure, chemical composition, and microhardness. In this context, the influence of the particle size distribution of the used tool steel powder on the LMD process itself and the resulting relative density are extensively researched. For this purpose, high-speed camera measurements of the powder particle stream were conducted in order to determine both the powder particle stream diameter and the lateral powder particle distribution with regard to the distance z from the powder nozzle. Furthermore, the influence of an additional substrate preheating (maximum preheating temperature of 400 °C) on the resulting microstructure and hardness of the additively generated samples is the subject of the presented investigations.