One of the major issues faced by the hot-work industries like casting, forging, extrusion, and moulding is to remove the accumulated heat in the hot-work tools. It leads to softening and heat checks thereby reducing the service life of the tool, affecting the production and quality of the part. Tools designed with conformal cooling channels and with a material having high toughness and hot hardness will increase the die service life. Manufacturing such conformal channels is challenging for the conventional subtractive processes. Therefore, an attempt was made to manufacture AISI H13 tool steel component by selective laser melting (SLM). In this study, SLM process parameters were systematically investigated to build defect-free and dense components. Since SLM manufactured AISI H13 tool steel (as-built) possesses ultrafine supersaturated dendritic microstructure which is brittle in nature hence the post-heat treatment conditions were investigated in detail. Further, the metallurgical and mechanical behaviour of both as-built and heat-treated samples were analysed and the properties are compared to those of conventionally fabricated AISI H13 tool steel. Based on the optimised process parameter and post-heat treatment condition, the core pin was designed with the conformal cooling channel and validated at the real-time test rig. Obtained results were optimistic.
Keywords: Selective Laser Melting, AISI H13 Tool Steel, Conformal Cooling Channel, Post-heat Treatment