Product Code: ICAL05_P514

Laser Consolidation of H13 Tool Steel
Authors:
Lijue Xue, National Research Council Canada; London ON Canada
Andre Theriault, National Research Council Canada; London Ontario Canada
Sheng-Hui Wang, National Research Council Canada; London Ontario Canada
Jianyin Chen, National Research Council Canada; London Ontario Canada
Presented at ICALEO 2005

Laser consolidation (LC) is an innovative one-step material addition process. Based on CAD design, the process builds net shape functional parts or features on existing components layer-by-layer by using a laser beam to melt injected powder and re-solidifying it onto a substrate. In this paper, investigation of LC H13 tool steel is reported. Laser consolidation of H13 powder to build samples is performed on the pre-hardened H13 substrate without pre-heating. LC H13 specimens are metallurgically sound and exhibit excellent mechanical properties. The bond strength of LC material to the wrought H13 substrate is also very good. As-consolidated H13 material shows yield and tensile strengths comparable to the hardened wrought material. The wear resistance of as-consolidated H13 is about 2 to 3 times better than the hardened wrought H13 material. The excellent mechanical properties of the LC H13 tool steel can be attributed to its unique microstructure induced by rapid solidification inherent to the process. Several LC H13 samples built up using 5-axis motion are also presented. As an alternative to conventional machining process, the LC process offers unique opportunities to reduce manufacturing time and cost in many potential applications, such as build functional part/molds, build detailed futures on the existing parts/molds, or repair damaged molds/dies without preheating.