The Sustainable Development Goals defined by the 2030 Agenda proposed by the United Nations General Assembly propose the ecological transition that collect as pillars for the fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda the transition towards circular economy (reduction of the use of primary raw materials and reduction of by-products), repair and reuse of products (especially in design and manufacturing activities), recyclability of products, prolonging the use of products through reuse. In this sense Laser Directed Energy Deposition (LDED) is a technique that perfectly fulfils the goals set by the 2030 Agenda.


In this paper LDED additive manufacturing technique has been used to generate coatings and parts of manufacturing tools with high added value for their restoration and recovery in the production cycle. Particularly hot forging tools made of H13 tool steel for automotive components have been repaired by a high power diode laser based LDED system. These parts are subjected to very agressive working conditions, suffering high temperature wear and impact-abrasion. Different components made on untreated H13, as well as tempering heat treated and thermochemical nitrosulfurized parts have been studied. The results show that the LDED technique is suitable for repairing H13 based hot forging tools independently of the previous thermal treatment.