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Engineers at Mitsubishi Corporation Technologies—a branch of the Japanese industrial giant dedicated to providing advanced solutions for manufacturing industrial parts – have developed a new alloy, called MTS Additive Mold Steel, or MAMS, which has properties equivalent to SKD61 tool steel. This makes it superior to other AM maraging steels currently used in AM in terms of thermal conductivity, opening up many new possibilities in the use of AM for aluminum die casting molds.
SKD61 is a high chrome alloy tool steel with high hardness and wear resistance after heat treatment and hardenability. It has good dimensional stability and hot hardness. Common AM maraging steels have low thermal conductivity and the hybrid casting of maraging and SKD61 steels is too complex.
Mitsubishi Corporation Technology developed the new MAMS material in collaboration with a leading material manufacturer and, for the first time in the world, they established modeling conditions that allow modeling with a density of 99.996 ~ 8. This has made it possible to use it concretely in the die-casting of dies for mass production.
Traditional maraging steel requires thin-walled designs, which can lead to water leakage due to cracks.
Due to the higher thermal conductivity of MAMS, the walls of the mold can be made thicker, without reducing the cooling effect, which increases the degree of freedom in the design of the die (and the model). MAMS was developed as a material with high thermal conductivity, ideal for die-cast aluminum parts. By achieving high thermal conductivity, it can shorten cycle times by improving cooling efficiency and lead to crack prevention by enabling thicker wall designs, lowering total costs by extending mold life.
MAMS hardness can be adjusted by tempering after molding (tempering at 550 ° C or higher is recommended to release residual stresses). The tensile strength of the materials is 0.2%, which is equivalent to SKD61 series steel with the same mold hardness. Its impact value is higher than that of SKD61 series steel with the same hardness due to the effect of low carbonization.
Rather than fully modeling the entire shape by AM, it can be made by hybrid modeling in which only the free water pipe shaped part at the tip is added to the base processed by conventional methods. Conventionally, there is only a combination of SKD61 steel for the base and maraging steel for the casting part, and due to the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion, cracks occur at the interface between the base and the molding part during mass production. The combination of MAMS and SKD61 can reduce the occurrence of cracks at the base and at the interface.
This hybrid process is particularly suited to Japanese manufacturing capabilities. While Japan is considered to be somewhat behind in the adoption of AM (but that has changed in recent times), it also has a history of automated manufacturing capabilities which are ideal for solving problems such as post-production. treatment and to combine AF with other basic technologies. Japan is at the forefront of the use of technologies such as surface treatment, complex and precise cutting and grinding processes. In particular, mold technology, which is a Japanese specialty, has overwhelming technological capabilities, and Mitsubishi engineers now believe that by combining it with the use of metal 3D printing technology, they can create value. added unmatched in the world.
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