Additive manufacturing (AM) is widely used for tooling applications: complex conformal cooling channels are designed to increase and homogenize the cooling rate of a mold insert. The list of available steel grades in laser powder bed fusion is currently very limited and do not satisfy highly mechanically demanding applications: hard metals printable without cracking are lacking. In this study, the exposure parameters of a new tooling steel tailored for AM (L40), have been developed and optimized on a EOS M290 printer based microstructural observations and mechanical testing. Several batches of either gas or water atomized powder have been processed and studied. The aim of using water atomized powder is to reduce both the environmental footprint and the cost of the feed material. Dense built parts (other 99% density), were achieved using water and gas atomized powders.
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