Advances in additive manufacturing of cemented carbides: From powder production to mechanical properties and future challenges

Abstract

Cemented carbides, which combine refractory metal carbides with binder phases, are essential advanced engineering materials for modern industry, spanning manufacturing, mining, energy production, aerospace, and defense. Their unique properties enable critical applications in cutting tools, drilling equipment, molds, dies, and wear-resistant components, making them vital in today’s technological landscape. Cemented carbides have traditionally been produced using powder metallurgy (PM) techniques. However, these conventional methods have limitations in tooling and molding, particularly for creating complex geometries, which restricts design freedom and innovation. Furthermore, their reliance on costly and time-consuming dies limits rapid response for low-volume, customized, or on-demand production. Additive Manufacturing (AM) offers a promising alternative, eliminating dies and enabling complex geometries, integrated functional features, and innovative product designs previously unattainable with traditional methods. Recent research has explored various AM techniques for producing cemented carbides, including laser powder bed fusion of (LPBF), directed energy deposition (DED), electron beam powder bed fusion (EB-PBF), selective laser sintering (SLS), binder jetting AM (BJAM), and powder extrusion printing (PEP) / 3D gel printing (3DGP). This article critically evaluates the current state-of-the-art, challenges, and future prospects of AM for cemented carbides. We analyze the suitability of various powder preparation methods for AM, examine the effectiveness of different AM techniques with cemented carbides, and discuss the microstructure, defects, and mechanical properties of cemented carbides fabricated by various AM processes, comparing them to traditionally manufactured counterparts. Our concluding remarks highlight the challenges in cemented carbide AM and suggest strategic directions for future research to advance this field.