Curing Behaviour of Non-Corrosion-Resistant Tool Steels in Metal Binder Jetting

Along the Metal Binder Jetting process chain, the metal powder is subjected to interactions with the binder, which is often water-based, and with air at elevated temperature during the curing step. This can lead to corrosion or oxidation reactions, especially for non-corrosion-resistant materials like typical tool steels. In order to investigate the interaction of non-corrosion resistant steels and different binders as well as the curing behaviour, two commonly used tool steels (PM-V10 and M2) are combined with three different binders. Measurements are carried out on the wetting behaviour of all powder-binder combinations, by determining the saturation rate and equilibrium binder saturation. Curing temperatures are set according to the respective binder composition, and both curing in air as well as in protective atmosphere is tested. The evaluation includes the shape of the resulting green parts and the density, microstructure, and carbon and oxygen content of parts after debinding and sintering.