Investigation of the Oxygen Content of Additively Manufactured Tool Steel 1.2344

Laser Beam Melting (LBM) offers a high design flexibility and the possibility to create complex metal parts in small batch sizes efficiently. However, several questions regarding the mechanical properties are still not conclusively clarified. In general, the remaining degree of porosity is regarded as major indicator on the parts properties. Other properties such as the resulting residual stresses, the oxygen contents and possible contaminants of the powder or the influence of humidity are less often taken into consideration and difficult to measure. In this work, the mechanical properties for LBM generated specimens out of tool steel 1.2344 are investigated and compared to conventionally fabricated material. The quasi-static properties are comparable to conventionally fabricated materials, whereas a significant impact on the fatigue strength was observed together with a high oxygen content of 569 ppm, with significant oxygen peaks that can be allocated to the fractured area.Mechanical Engineerin