A Comprehensive Review of Additively Manufactured H13 Tool Steel Applicable in the Injection Mold Industry: Applications, Designs, Microstructure, Mechanical Properties

Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) has demonstrated strong potential in critical industrial applications requiring high-performance mechanical behavior. The advantage of AM over subtractive methods lies in the flexibility of the manufacturer in producing complex geometries. The method is recommended for building complex conformal cooling channels for injection molds, which leads to efficient heat extraction, and consequently extends the fatigue life of the steel mold. This review paper will go over the most recent studies on injection molds made using AM methods. It is divided into three sections: the first section looks at studies on the design of cooling channels aimed at improving the temperature distribution inside the mold; in the second section, we present a detailed investigation of H13, the most common type of mold steel used in industry, including its microstructure and mechanical behavior; and in the third section, post-processing treatments to improve mechanical properties are presented.