PBF-EB of Fe-Cr-V Alloy for Wear Applications.

Marie Franke-Jurisch,Markus Mirz,Thomas Wenz,Burghardt Klöden,Alexander Kirchner,Thomas Weißgärber

doi:10.3390/ma15051679

Abstract

Due to the small variety of materials, the areas of application of additive manufacturing in the toolmaking industry are currently still limited. In order to overcome these material restrictions, AM material development for high carbon-containing iron-based materials, which are characterized by high strength, hardness, and wear resistance, must be intensified. However, these materials are often susceptible to crack formation or lack of fusion defects during processing. Therefore, these materials are preferentially suited for electron beam powder bed fusion (PBF-EB). In this paper, an Fe-Cr-V alloy with 10% vanadium is presented. Investigations were carried out on the PBF-EB system Arcam A2X. Specimens and demonstrators are characterized by a three-phase microstructure with an Fe-rich matrix and VC and M7C3 reinforcements. The resulting microstructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Furthermore, mechanical and physical properties were measured. A final field test was conducted to evaluate durability in use.

Highlights

Additive manufacturing (AM), especially powder bed fusion (PBF) technologies, such as laser beam powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) and electron beam powder bed fusion (PBF-EB), have been proven suitable for the production of complex-shaped parts
Interest in the use of AM for cost-driven industries, tool steel applications in particular, has been increasing recently, which is reflected in the number of publications in the last years [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]
The cross section of an as built FeCr-10V thin-walled structure is represented by Figure 4a, showing a crack-free and dense sample

Summary

Introduction

Additive manufacturing (AM), especially powder bed fusion (PBF) technologies, such as laser beam powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) and electron beam powder bed fusion (PBF-EB), have been proven suitable for the production of complex-shaped parts. Most of the materials that have been investigated were non-iron based, as their manufacturing was often combined with high production and material costs, or stainless or maraging steel [1,2,3,4]. Interest in the use of AM for cost-driven industries, tool steel applications in particular, has been increasing recently, which is reflected in the number of publications in the last years [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]. There is still a lack of investigations dealing with AM of highly wear-resistant carbon containing tool steels. Most common publications from Sander, Botero, etc. deal with an FeCrMoVC alloy, Uddeholms Vanadis 4 Extra©, Vibenite© 480 by VBN Components, FeCu-C alloy, and FeCr-10V, respectively [7,10,11,23,25,26]

Methods

Results

Conclusion