Manufacturing of High Pressure Die Casting Die Inserts Using SLM Roland STOLT a,1 and Anders E. W. JARFORS b a Jönköping University, Dept. of Product Development, Production and Design b Jönköping University, Dept. of Materials and Manufacuring Abstract. Dies for high pressure die casting are normally manufactured by machining of slabs of tool steel to the required dimensions. This manufacturing requires several steps such as rough machining, heat-treatment, EDM (electro discharge machining) and polishing. With the AM (additive manufacturing) method SLM (Selective Laser Melting) it has become possible to print the dies fully or in part. Several advantages are expected, such as a better thermal distribution in the die in service and thereby extended die life and better component quality. This is due to the possibility of making the cooling channels conformal. There are also expectations of reduced time and cost in the manufacturing process due to fewer manufacturing steps and better material utilisation. Hopes are to print a net shape or near net shape that can be used directly as a die component. In this paper it is investigated to what extent this can be fulfilled by printing two die inserts to be used for casting fatigue test samples of aluminium. They were printed on a 3D Systems ProX DMP 300 in maraging steel powder. The result is that it is possible to obtain a sufficiently smooth surface die surface. However, the current design with an SLM insert fitted in a machined die makes extensive post printing manufacturing necessary. Keywords. Additive Manufacturing; AM; High Pressure Die Casting; HPDC; Selective Laser Melting; SLM Dies; Conformal cooling channels. Introduction Dies and moulds are increasingly being manufactured by additive manufacturing (AM) methods such as Electron Beam melting (EBM) and Selective Laser Melting (SLM). Examples includes dies for injection moulding of thermo plastics and high pressure die casting (HPDC) of light metal alloys. Also dies for the extrusion of aluminium profiles are being manufactured by AM [1]. One of the main motivations for the AM of dies is gaining better control of the die temperature by introducing conformal cooling channels. By manufacturing the dies by AM, the cooling channels can be located at exactly the places where the cooling is needed making the temperature distribution of the die more even and thereby extending the die life due to reduced thermal stresses. Better control of the temperature also mean that the part quality can be increased, and that the cycle times can be reduced. The conformal cooling channels are often geometrically complicated and there are few, if any other ways than AM by which they can be manufactured. In this paper, the possibilities of using the SLM process for HPDC dies with conformal cooling will be 1 Corresponding Author. [roland.stolt@ju.se] SPS2020 K. Säfsten and F. Elgh (Eds.) © 2020 The authors and IOS Press. This article is published online with Open Access by IOS Press and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). doi:10.3233/ATDE200206 663