Laser cladding a surface treatment process that grants superior characteristics such as toughness, hardness, and corrosion resistance to the surface, and rebuilds cracked molds; as such, it can be a strong tool to prolong service life of mold steel. Furthermore, compared with the other similar coating processes – thermal spray, etc., laser cladding provides superior bonding strength and precision coating on a local area. In this study, surface characteristics are studied after laser cladding of low carbon steel using 18%Cr-2.5%Ni-Fe powder (Rockit404), known for its high hardness and excellent corrosion resistance. A diode laser with wavelength of 900-1070 nm is adopted as laser source under argon atmosphere; electrical power for the laser cladding process is 5, 6, and 10 kW. Fundamental surface characteristics such as crossectional microstructure and hardness profile are observed and measured, and special evaluation, such as a soldering test with molten ALDC12 alloy, is conducted to investigate the corrosion resistance characteristics. As a result of the die-soldering test by immersion of low carbon alloy steel in ALDC12 molten metal, the clad layer's soldering thickness decreases.

Molds are actively used for mass production of products such as mobile phones. Molds are required to be durable and have a high level of surface roughness. Therefore, the optimization of mold processing is essential. In this study, the cutting processing of SDP20 steel used in molds was analyzed and optimized. This study is expected to contribute to the improvement of product productivity to which plastics are applied.

As product diversity increases and product life cycle gets shorter, lead time reduction and manufacturing cost saving of die & mold are getting important in machinery, automotive, and electronics industries. To develop a novel free-machining die & mold steel, we try to modify the chemical compositions of AISI P20 mold steel by adding boron, nitride, and sulfur. After making three types of mold steels which are base metal of AISI P20 mod., boron and nitrogen added, and boron, nitrogen, and sulfur added to the base metal. Milling tests are carried out using TiN, TiCN, and TiAlN coated WC end-mills under various cutting conditions. Boron and nitrogen added steel machined by TiN coated tool shows the most excellent tool wear and surface roughness characteristics. The results might come from BN inclusions in base metal acting as a stress concentration source and lowering strain resistance during cutting process. The relationship between tool wear and surface roughness are also discussed including feed rate effects.