Thermal Fatigue Behavior of AISI H13 Hot Work Tool Steel Produced by Direct Laser Metal Deposition

Direct laser metal deposition (DLMD) is an additive manufacturing technique getting growing attention thanks to the possibility of producing very complex parts in a short time and in a cost-effective manner. The possible applications of this technology are tools with conformal cooling channels and claddings for dies and molds reparation. One of the damaging mechanisms of tools is thermal fatigue (TF) cracking, leading to surface deterioration and, consequently, the processed parts. Herein, the TF behavior of DLMD-H13 submitted to two different heat treatments, namely direct tempering (T) and quenching and tempering (QT), is investigated. T does not significantly change the solidification microstructure after DLMD, whereas QT produces a more homogenous tempered martensite microstructure. A customary laboratory test is developed to induce TF damage under a cyclic temperature variation between 630 and 60 °C. The results evidenced that the T-H13 has a slightly better TF resistance with respect to QT-H13 due to the higher tempering resistance of T-H13 with respect to QT-H13. Thus, according to TF test results, direct tempering can be preferred to quench and tempering since the elimination of quenching can decrease the costs of production as well as distortions-related issues, increasing the competitiveness of DLMD.