Structural properties of H13 tool steel parts produced with use of selective laser melting technology

This paper deals with establishing of building parameters for 1.2344 (H13) tool steel processed using Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology with layer thickness of 50 mu m. In the first part of the work, testing matrix of models in the form of a cube with chamfered edge were built under various building parameters such as laser scanning speed and laser power. Resulting models were subjected to set of tests including measurement of surface roughness, inspection of inner structure with aid of Light Optical Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy and evaluation of micro-hardness. These tests helped us to evaluate an influence of changes in building strategy to the properties of the resulting model. In the second part of the work, mechanical properties of the 1113 steel were examined. For this purpose, the set of samples in the form of dog bone were printed under three different alignments towards the building plate and tested on universal testing machine. Mechanical testing of the samples should then reveal if the different orientation and thus different layering of the material somehow influence its mechanical properties. For this type of material, the producer provides the parameters for layer thickness of 30 mu m only. Thus, our 50 mu m building strategy brings shortening of the building time which is valuable especially for large models. Results of mechanical tests show slight variation in mechanical properties for various alignment of the sample.