Abstract
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are currently employed for the manufacturing of completely functional parts and have gained the attention of high-technology industries such as the aerospace, automotive, and biomedical fields. This is mainly due to their advantages in terms of low material waste and high productivity, particularly owing to the flexibility in the geometries that can be generated. In the tooling industry, specifically the manufacturing of dies and molds, AM technologies enable the generation of complex shapes, internal cooling channels, the repair of damaged dies and molds, and an improved performance of dies and molds employing multiple AM materials. In the present paper, a review of AM processes and materials applied in the tooling industry for the generation of dies and molds is addressed. AM technologies used for tooling applications and the characteristics of the materials employed in this industry are first presented. In addition, the most relevant state-of-the-art approaches are analyzed with respect to the process parameters and microstructural and mechanical properties in the processing of high-performance tooling materials used in AM processes. Concretely, studies on the AM of ferrous (maraging steels and H13 steel alloy) and non-ferrous (stellite alloys and WC alloys) tooling alloys are also analyzed.
Highlights
Recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have enabled their use in many manufacturing applications
Among the metal Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies presented this paper focuses on those commonly employed in the manufacturing of tooling alloys, i.e., laser powder bed fusion, directed energy deposition, wire-arc additive manufacturing, and binder jetting (BJ)
To avoid or decrease the oxidation issues during deposition, wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) systems are usually enclosed in a chamber to provide an inert gas environment, or they are equipped with local shielding gas mechanisms that deliver the inert gas
Summary
Recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have enabled their use in many manufacturing applications. Owing to the high cooling rates that occur during AM processes, residual stresses are generated that affect the in-service performance of the manufactured components Given this context, this study focuses on the AM of tooling alloys. This review paper addresses the AM of tooling alloys used in producing tools and dies for machining, forging, and metal forming processes Considering these manufacturing processes, materials employed for tooling applications must have specific properties to ensure the quality of the generated parts and an acceptable tool lifespan. Until now, the microstructure and mechanical properties of metals created through AM have been analyzed with special emphasis on steel, aluminum, and titanium alloys only This is due to the application of these alloys in demanding industries, such as the aerospace and automotive fields. Some concluding remarks regarding the AM of tooling alloys are presented based on the research review described in the previous sections
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