Deposition Characteristics of High-Thermal-Conductivity Steel in the Direct Energy Deposition Process and its Hardness Properties at High Temperatures

Direct energy deposition (DED) is a three-dimensional (3D) deposition technique that uses metallic powder; it is a multi-bead, multi-layered deposition technique. This study investigates the dependence of the defects of the 3D deposition and the process parameters of the DED technique as well as deposition characteristics and the hardness properties of the deposited material. In this study, high-thermal-conductivity steel (HTCS-150) was deposited onto a JIS SKD61 substrate. In single bead deposition experiments, the height and width of the single bead became bigger with increasing the laser power. The powder feeding rate affected only the height, which increased as the powder feeding rate rose. The scanning speed inversely affected the height, unlike the powder feeding rate. The multi-layered deposition was characterized by pores, a lack of fusion, pores formed by evaporated gas, and pores formed by non-molten metal inside the deposited material. The porosity was quantitatively measured in cross-sections of the depositions, revealing that the lack of fusion tended to increase as the laser power decreased; however, the powder feeding rate and overlap width increased. The pores formed by evaporated gas and non-molten metal tended to increase with rising the laser power and powder feeding rate; however, the overlap width decreased. Finally, measurement of the hardness of the deposited material at 25℃, 300℃, and 600℃ revealed that it had a higher hardness than the conventional annealed SKD61.