Abstract
The near-net fabrication capabilities of laser powder-bed fusion (LPBF) offer the potential to manufacture tools with complex cooling channels that can improve the production efficiency of the tools with reduced greenhouse gas emissions. High strength, toughness, and wear resistance are some of the key properties required by the tooling industries to qualify tools. While strength can be increased through appropriate heat treatments, the increase in strength comes with an associated ductility loss. We show that the non-equilibrium conditions inherent to LPBF can suppress the transformation-induced plasticity effect to room temperature in a Ti-free version of grade 300 maraging steel (G300MS), which is commonly not observed at room temperature in G300MS manufactured using conventional methods. The presence of retained austenite along with Ni-rich regions was found to increase the kinetics for austenite reversion during aging, thereby enabling the transformation of austenite into ε martensite during tensile deformation at room temperature, in turn increasing the strength with minimal ductility loss.
