Additive manufacturing for extrusion dies

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology is considered to be the fourth-industrial revolution, allowing the production of near-net-shaped components almost without geometrical constraints. In contrast to conventional subtractive technologies, AM creates a component by building it up layer by layer, starting from a 3D CAD model.1 Due to the technology’s ability to produce components from high performance materials with added functionalities and increased complexity, AM perfectly fits with the requirements for producing dies, tools, and inserts. The AM technologies first developed in the 1990s were brought into the manufacturing of tools some years later. In this context, the first applications were in low impact processes like plastic injection molding, but were eventually implemented in the tooling for metal working processes like sheet metal forming and die casting, with new developments in extrusion dies underway. Nowadays, AM can process many metallic materials to produce full dense parts with outstanding properties, the most important being at the industrial scale, represented by steels, aluminum, and titanium alloys, as well as Ni-based superalloys and CoCr.3-4 This paper will address the general use of AM in metals and tooling applications, with a specific look at the development of a 3D-printed cooling insert for extrusion dies.