The International Conference on the Science of Hard Materials (ICSHM) is certainly a prestigious one. This year, VBN contributes to a keynote presentation in collaboration with Prof. Dr. -Ing. Tobias Schwanekamp from iWFT Cologne.
VBN Components and iWFT Cologne are collaborating in a research project on the laser-printing of the Vibenite® 480 alloy with Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). At ICHSM, the presentation “Additive manufacturing of CrC-enriched WC-Co hybrid carbide with laser based – powder bed fusion” has been selected as the keynote speech for AM session 5 on 12 March at 10:50 AM.
The results point out a wide and robust process window for the laser printing, which is a great benefit when processing these very difficult cemented carbide type of alloys. Researchers have heated the powder bed to 800 °C in a laser printer and tested a number of different melting settings. The highest achieved hardness was 1100 HV3 and bending strength was 1075 N/mm2.
The research demonstrates great opportunities for 3D printing cemented carbide type materials in LPBF machines with sufficient heating capabilities. This is great news for the AM field, where both universities and companies are making large efforts to solve the need for producing wear resistant materials by LPBF. As you may know, VBN Components produces with Electron Beam Melting today.
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