Investigation of quench hardening behavior of directed energy deposited 22MnB5 steel for local reinforcement of hot stamping parts

In this study, 22MnB5 sheet metals are reinforced using Directed Energy Deposition (DED) in order to investigate the quench-hardening behavior of additively manufactured 22MnB5. Therefore, the hardness and element loss of the DED-material are examined. When compared to conventional materials, the DED-material requires faster cooling rates to achieve full martensite transformation. Titanium inhibits the formation of boron nitrides in conventional 22MnB5 sheet material (Ti). However, the Ti/N-ratio in DED-material is very low, owing to a high mill scale of Ti during the DED-process. Possible solutions and optimizations are discussed for this purpose.