Large Scale Metal Additive Manufacturing for Stamping Dies

Abstract

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) worked with Dienamic Tooling Systems (DTS) in a follow-on Phase 2 effort to develop and demonstrate additively manufactured conformal cooling for hot stamping dies, providing a new industry capability that did not previously exist. Current approaches to die cooling are nonoptimal and based on what can be machined with traditional technologies. The printed approach to hot stamping cooling channels allows an analytical needs-based size and placement approach to cooling. Cooling is optimized and parts count is reduced producing a simpler more reliable faster to manufacture stamping tool. An additively manufactured hot stamping die with conformal cooling channels was manufactured and successfully tested in a real-world environment.