University of Waterloo

Purpose

Tooling such as dies and molds experience numerous thermal cycles during operation. High performance tooling can be obtained by embedding conformal cooling channels for integrated thermal management. This concept is enabled using Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies. Tooling is usually made of specialty steels. Weldability of most tool steels is however very limited, which makes their processability with laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) AM technologies difficult. The industry is thus presently using maraging steel as an alternative material to build complex additively manufactured, conformally-cooled tool inserts. Some industries reported early failure of these additively-manufactured tooling compared to the conventional tooling made of standard steels. The sources of inconsistencies in the AM tooling are yet unclear. In this project, the NRC in collaboration with the University of Waterloo, is aiming to understanding the links between material properties, process parameter, geometrical design, and tooling life of maraging steel tooling manufactured by LPBF.