Plastic injection molding dies using hybrid additively manufactured 420/CX stainless steels: electrochemical considerations

• Published in: Npj Materials degradation Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 1 - 19
• Main Authors: Shahriari, Ayda, Samei, Javad, Sanjari, Mehdi, Jahanbakht, Mohammad, Amirkhiz, Babak Shalchi, Mohammadi, Mohsen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.08.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301; 639/638/161/892; Additive manufacturing; Aluminum; Chemistry and Materials Science; Cooling; Corrosion and Coatings; Corrosion resistance; Data analysis; Electrochemical analysis; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; Electrochemical noise; Electrochemistry; Electrode polarization; Heat treatment; Injection molding; Intermetallic compounds; Materials Science; Morphology; Niobium; Precipitation hardening; Stainless steel; Stainless steels; Structural Materials; Tribology
• ISSN: 2397-2106; 2397-2106
• DOI: 10.1038/s41529-022-00280-y

This research focused on the corrosion resistance and microstructure of hybrid additively manufactured (HAM) samples of AISI 420/CX (420/CX SS) stainless steels. Potentiodynamic polarization, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and Mott–Schottky analyses as well as the electrochemical noise (EN) technique were used to evaluate the electrochemical behavior of the as-built and heat-treated HAM parts in NaCl solution. The results showed a more protective passive layer formed on the CX SS side. The distribution of Cr-rich M 23 C 6 carbides in matrix of 420 SS side resulted in a lower corrosion resistance compared to the CX SS side. The noise data analysis confirmed an increase in the galvanic currents of the HAM parts after heat treatment. The stochastic analysis revealed the interface in the heat-treated condition increases pit growth more than the as-built one due to the evolution of nano-sized intermetallic compounds of Al-N/ (Cr, Nb) (N, C) at the heat-treated interface area.