Dual Speed Laser Remelting for High Densification in H13 Tool Steel Metal 3D Printing

The densification behavior of H13 tool steel powder by dual speed laser scanning strategy have been characterized for selective laser melting process, one of powder bed fusion based metal 3d printing. Under limited given laser power, the laser re-melting increases the relative density and hardness of H13 tool steel with closing pores. The single melt-pool analysis shows that the pores are located on top area of melt pool when the scanning speed is over 400 mm/s while the low scanning speed of 200 mm/s generates pores beneath the melt pool in the form of keyhole mode with the high energy input from the laser. With the second laser scanning, the pores on top area of melt pools are efficiently closed with proper dual combination of scan speed. However pores located beneath the melt pools could not be removed by second laser scanning. When each layer of 3d printing are re-melted, the relative density and hardness are improved for most dual combination of scanning. Among the scan speed combination, the 600 mm/s by 400 mm/s leads to the highest relative density, 99.94% with hardness of 53.5 HRC. This densification characterization with H13 tool steel laser re-melting can be efficiently applied for tool steel component manufacturing via metal 3d printing.