Game Changer: 3D Printing H13 Tool Steel

H13 is a hot-work tool steel, meaning it retains high strength at elevated temperatures and is known for exhibiting excellent red hardness, resistance to thermal fatigue, high toughness, ductility, good abrasion resistance and excellent through-hardenability. Markforged (Watertown, MA) offers H13 tool steel for their Metal X desktop-sized metal 3D printer so that H13 users can build parts for high strength, high temperature applications, such as metal forming tools, dies and punches, hardened inserts for fixtures, and even injection molds with conformal cooling channels. “For manufacturers of high volume plastic parts this is a game changer, significantly accelerating the speed at which they can bring new products to market,” said Jon Reilly, the vice president of product at Markforged. Because H13 can now be 3D printed, shops can begin to print parts with unique and complex geometries, something that traditionally would be very expensive and difficult to do.

For example, printing an H13 injection mold that features conformal cooling channels would more effectively move heat away from the mold cavity and provide more uniform cooling, leading to less part-warp, shorter cycle times, higher throughput and, ultimately, lower operational costs. Since 1982, Grant Engineering & Manufacturing, Inc. (Richmond, CA) has been creating high quality parts from injection-molded plastics, producing millions of parts per year for their biotech, high tech, and consumer product customers. Grant was an early adopter of the Metal X printing system and prints 17-4 PH stainless steel injection molds successfully, with minimal post-processing. They hope to further reduce their iteration time and cost for injection molds printed in H13. “Injection molding is the core of what we do,” said Randy Grant, the co-founder and co-owner of the company. “Much like the robots and automation we’ve already introduced into our workflow, we see 3D printing as a way keep us hyper-competitive on cost and turnaround time while still delivering precision and quality.”

H13 tool steel – known as EN 1.2344 and SKD61 in Germany and Japan, respectively – is the first of several future materials planned for the Metal X, including A2 and D2 tool steel, stainless steel 316L, Inconel and titanium.

Markforged, 480 Pleasant Street, Watertown, MA 02472, 866-496-1805, markforged.com.