Feasibility Analysis of Utilizing Maraging Steel in a Wire Arc Additive Process for High-Strength Tooling Applications

Traditional tool and die development require skilled labor, long lead time, and is highly expensive to produce. Metal Big Area Additive Manufacturing (mBAAM) is a wire-arc additive process that utilizes a metal inert gas (MIG) welding robot to print large-scale parts layer-by-layer. By using mBAAM, tooling can be manufactured rapidly with low costs. For cold work tooling applications, a high hardness level is desired to increase the life-time of the tool. A promising material that can achieve this is maraging steel. Maraging steel is known to have good weldability; however, further testing must be conducted to ensure it is feasible for printing using mBAAM. In this paper, initial process parameters were obtained by printing single bead welds. Multi-bead walls were then printed with some refinement of process parameters to construct homogenous outer features of the walls. Lastly, the walls were heat-treated, and hardness data was gathered through Rockwell Hardness tests.