Development of a Feedstock for Additive Manufacturing of 4605 Steel Compact by FDMS Process

In this study, an optimum feedstock has been developed for additive manufacturing of 4605 steel powder through fused deposition modelling and sintering process using the response surface methodology. For this purpose, 15 feedstock samples containing four part binder system of paraffin wax (PW), polypropylene (PP), carnauba wax (CW), and stearic acid (SA) were compounded with 4605 powder. The rheological, physical and mechanical properties of the samples were measured and optimized with the aim of increasing the strength, density of the final part and reducing the viscosity of the feedstock. The results showed that increase in the percentage of SA and PW reduces the viscosity of the feedstock while increase in PP results in increase in density and strength. Finally, the optimum feedstock is suggested to have 61 wt% of PW, 25 wt% of PP, 10 wt% of CW, and 4 wt% of SA along with 90 wt% of steel powder.