RESUMEN
Additive manufacturing is a high-potential technique that allows the production of components with almost no limitation in complexity. However, one of the main factors that still limits the laser-based additive manufacturing is a lack of processable alloys such as carbon martensitic hardenable tool steels, which are rarely investigated due to their susceptibility to cold cracking. Therefore, this study aimed to expand the variety of steels for laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) by investigating an alternative alloying strategy for hot work tool steel powder. In this study, a comprehensive investigation was performed on the powder and L-PBF processed specimen properties and their correlation with the existing defects. Cubical specimens were created using the following two alloying strategies by means of L-PBF: conventional pre-alloyed gas-atomized powder and a mixture of gas-atomized powder with mechanically crushed pure elements and ferroalloys. The influence of the particle parameters such as morphology were correlated to the defect density and resulting quasi-static mechanical properties. Micromechanical behavior and damage evolution of the processed specimens were investigated using in situ computed tomography. It was shown that the properties of the L-PBF processed specimens obtained from the powder mixture performs equal or better compared to the specimens produced from conventional powder.
RESUMEN
In this study, fatigue behavior of surface finished and precorroded friction stir welded (FSW) specimens using various tool configurations were comparatively investigated by the load increase method. The FSW using conventional, stationary shoulder and dual-rotational configurations was carried out by a robotized tool setup on 2 mm EN AW-5754 aluminum sheets in butt joint formation. After extraction of the specimens, their weld seam and root surfaces were milled to two different depths of 200 µm and 400 µm to remove the surface and the FSW tool shoulder effects. This surface finishing process was performed to investigate the effect of the surface defects on the fatigue behavior of the FSW EN AW-5754 aluminum alloy sheets. It was found that material removal from the weld and root surfaces of the specimens, increased the fracture stresses of conventional and dual-rotational FSW from 204 to 229 MPa and 196 to 226 MPa, respectively. However, this increase could not be detected in stationary shoulder FSW. Specimens with finished surfaces, which showed superior properties, were used in salt spray and cyclic climate change test to investigate the effect of corrosion on the fatigue behavior of FSW specimens. It was shown that cyclic climate change test reduced the fatigue properties of the base material, conventional, stationary shoulder and dual-rotational FSW approximately 1%-7%. This decrease in the fatigue properties was greater in the case of the salt spray test, which was 7% to 21%.