Generally, press molds have thermal and mechanical impact wear during usage. To improve the life of the mold, enhancement of mechanical properties such as abrasion resistance and shockproof capability is required. To solve this, we propose the multi-layered cladding process of functional materials with different mixing ratios. AISI-D2 material, known as cold die steel, was used as base material and AISI-M4 and -H13 powders were used for surface cladding on the base metal for high resistance wear and shockproof capability. Four cases of specimens were prepared to compare mechanical properties after tests. Through this study, a specimen multiple cladded with mixing M4 and H13 powders for middle layer and M4 powder only for top layer showed 80% improvement in shockproof capability. We posit that this method based on multi-layer cladding with a combination of functional metal powders increased mold life.

The objective of this study was to perform surface hardening experiments of titanium alloy using laser. The surface hardness value after laser hardening treatment was observed to increase with respect to the inflow of laser energy. However, when the laser energy exceeded the critical value, damage and cracks were observed on the surface of the material. The relationship between surface hardness values and process variables such as laser energy, scan speed, and number of laser scans was quantitatively modeled through the design of experiments and analysis of variance. Using the established mathematical model, the surface hardness value of the material can be predicted accurately with an average of 10% error over various process conditions. Analysis of the surface composition of the material using energy dispersive spectrometry showed that titanium oxide was the main cause of the increasing surface hardness. Further studies will be conducted to improve the accuracy and predictability of the model using nonlinear modeling techniques.