Additive Manufacturing of a deep drawing tool by direct laser deposition

An additive manufacturing process generating a deep drawing tool by direct laser deposition is described in this paper. Aluminum bronze with ten percent of aluminum content was used as a tool material. Different welding techniques were tested for manufacturing the geometry of the tool. A procedure for examining the welding technique and parameters was demonstrated. Hardness distribution on the cross section of the generated punch was investigated. The results demon-strate the feasibility of the additive manufacturing process using aluminum bronze as tool material, direct laser deposition and a 3-axis-CNC-machining to realize the shape. Subsequently the printed deep drawing tool was successfully applied to form circular cups with an inner diameter of 30 mm made of 1.4301 high alloy steel. On the hand the deep drawing process was carried out by using lubricant and on the other hand cups were formed in a lubricant-free dry metal forming process.