Mitigating Scatter in Mechanical Properties in AISI 410 Fabricated via Arc-Based Additive Manufacturing Process

Wire-based metal additive manufacturing utilizes the ability of additive manufacturing to fabricate complex geometries with high deposition rates (above 7 kg/h), thus finding applications in the fabrication of large-scale components, such as stamping dies. Traditionally, the workhorse materials for stamping dies have been martensitic steels. However, the complex thermal gyrations induced during additive manufacturing can cause the evolution of an inhomogeneous microstructure, which leads to a significant scatter in the mechanical properties, especially the toughness. Therefore, to understand these phenomena, arc-based additive AISI 410 samples were fabricated using robotic gas metal arc welding (GMAW) and were subjected to a detailed characterization campaign. The results show significant scatter in the tensile properties as well as Charpy V-notch impact toughness data, which was then correlated to the microstructural heterogeneity and delta (δ) ferrite formation. Post-processing (austenitizing and tempering) treatments were developed and an ~70% reduction in the scatter of tensile data and a four-times improvement in the toughness were obtained. The changes in mechanical properties were rationalized based on the microstructure evolution during additive manufacturing. Based on these, an outline to tailor the composition of "printable" steels for tooling with isotropic and uniform mechanical properties is presented and discussed.