Master of Sciences (Engineering), Case Western Reserve University, 2015, Materials Science and Engineering

In this study, a number of established additive manufacturing processes were evaluated for their suitability repairing high-pressure die cast tooling. The processes included in this study are laser hot wire (LHW), electron beam freeform fabrication (EBF3), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS®), and direct metal deposition (DMD). To determine each process' suitability, blocks of maraging 250 steel were deposited on H-13 base metal. The results show that the maraging deposits are capable of providing good strength (>160 ksi), toughness (>15 ft-lbs), and hardness (45 HRC) for die tooling applications, but care must be taken to limit the occurrence of defects, particularly porosity. Of the processes tested, the LHW, DMD, and LENS® processes had the best balance of deposit properties. However, additional work will be required to optimize the processing parameters for each process.

Committee: David Schwam (Advisor); John Lewandowski (Committee Member); Gerhard Welsch (Committee Member) Subjects: Engineering; Materials Science; Metallurgy