Cemented Carbide Development for Additive Manufacturing (AM)

摘要

Complex machining processes require tools made of cemented carbides, which have superior material properties when compared to steels. Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers the possibility to introduce internal cooling structures in an optimized geometry, which makes it possible to increase the tool life and working with higher cutting speeds. The low apparent density and the unsuitable chemical composition of available WC-Co-granules results in a high volumetric porosity, phases that lead to embrittlement and an inhomogeneous WC grain size in Laser-Powder Bed Fusion processes. Suspensions for lithography-based AM processes are currently only available for the manufacturing of ceramic components. Mechanical alloying and a subsequent spray-drying step was carried out with the aim of developing more suitable powder types with 88 wt% WC and 12 wt% Co. Subsequent, test specimen were manufactured and evaluated with light- and scanning electron microscopy. Furthermore, photosensitive resins containing WC-/Co-particles and additives for lithography-based AM were developed.