Laser powder bed fusion of WC-Co form turning tools with integrated cooling features: Design, printing, and test machining of Ti6Al4V

Additively manufactured cutting tools have thus far proven unsuccessful in machining difficult-to-cut materials like titanium. To the knowledge of the authors, this paper demonstrates, for the first time, the form turning of Ti6Al4V with WC-Co tools printed using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF), without any material-related post-processing. Following an investigation into LPBF parameters to optimize WC-Co properties, numerical modelling was utilized to design and analyse said tools, which were then printed, finish-ground, and tested. This advance was facilitated by the enabling capabilities of LPBF, which elevated tool performance by incorporating features that are critical to machining titanium, such as cooling fins and streamlined internal coolant channels.