There are six different categories of tooling steel including; cold-work, water-hardened, hot-work, high-speed, shock-resisting, and special purpose tool steels. Below are the classifications of tool steel and their application.
Check now
1. Cold-Work Tool Steel
This is one of the major types of tool steel. It is tough, hard, and wear-resistant in cold environments with temperatures below 200ºC. However, cold-work tool steel does not perform well when exposed to hot environments.
Besides, cold-work steel has high machinability. This is due to the presence of graphite and the lubrication it provides. What&#;s more, the most commonly used tool steel grades in this category include; D2, O2, A2, D3, and D6.
These are the different subcategories of cold work tool steel.
1.1 High Carbon Chromium or D Series Grade Tool Steel
This cold-working tool steel is also known as stainless due to its high chromium content and contains 11-13% chromium. Although they have limited corrosion resistance, their 1.4-2.5% carbon content gives them a high abrasion resistance. It also enables them to function at temperatures as high as 425ºC.
Besides, their ability to undergo oil or air quenching with minimal distortion gives this tool steel application in making cutters. It also makes the D series tool steel ideal for making seaming and forming rolls, plastic injection molds, lathe centers, and woodworking knives. Its other applications include making burnishing tools, lamination dies, draw punches, as well as cold extrusion, dies.
1.2 Air Hardening or A Series Grade Tool Steel
These types of tool steel have a carbon content of 0.05-2.85% and up to 5% chromium content. Furthermore, this grade of tool steel is very tough with high wear resistance. Common applications include coining, embossing, blanking, and blending dies.
1.3 Oil Hardening or O Series Grade Tool Steel
Quenched by oil during production, this series of tool steel has a carbon content ranging between 0.85-2.00%. They are also tough with have high abrasion resistance. The applications of Oil hardening tool steels include making bushings, collets, gauges, master engraving rolls, punches, and chasers for thread cutting.
2. Water-Hardened Tool Steel
This category of tool steel contains heat-treated carbon steel. Produced at low-cost and water-quenched, water-hardened tool steel has a carbon content ranging between 0.5-1-5%. The high carbon content of water-hardened steel makes them brittle and hard. However, it is low on other alloying metals like tungsten, nickel, or molybdenum, usually less than 0.5%.
3. Hot Work Tool Steel
The types of tool steel in this category usually have a carbon content of less than 0.6%. However, they contain a greater percentage of other alloying elements. This enables them to keep their characteristics and work optimally even at extreme temperatures up to 540ºC due to the creation of more carbides.
The high-temperature resistance of hot work tool steel makes it ideal for use in manufacturing materials like metal and glass that require high temperatures for optimal malleability.
Additionally, one benefit engineers derive from using tool steel under this category is their continued functionality, even after exposure to extended heat. The most commonly used tool steel in this category is the H13.
Based on the percentage of alloying elements used, there are three main alloy elements in this category: molybdenum, and chromium.
3.1 Molybdenum-type Tool Steel
This is a hot work tool steel that has a high molybdenum content. Furthermore, this type of tool steel has high wear resistance and heat stability, especially in situations of extreme temperature. What&#;s more, their ability to handle force and heat gives Molybdenum-type tool steel applications in metal mills as cutters or dies.
3.2 Tungsten-type Tool Steel
This type of tool steel contains 9-18% tungsten and 2-4% chromium. Tungsten hot work tool steel although brittle, it has excellent heat resistance. Furthermore, one way to circumvent the brittleness of this tool steel is preheating it to operating temperature before use.
3.3 Chromium-type Tool Steel
The Chromium type is the most used hot work tool, containing 3-5% chromium. They could also contain below 5% of other alloying elements like molybdenum, tungsten, or vanadium. Common applications of chromium-type tool steel, include hot forging, hot working punches, and plastic injection mold.
4. High-Speed Tool Steel
High-Speed tool steel contains many elements, including 0.6% carbon, 3-5% chromium, and 14-18% tungsten. Furthermore, the invention of this category of tool steel is partly responsible for ushering in the era of modern production. Before the invention of high-speed tool steels, when cutting tools and machines worked for long periods, their efficiency decreased due to friction. However, with this tool steel, cutting tools and edges keep working efficiently, performing at optimal speeds.
Common applications of high-speed tool steel include the production of power-saw blades, milling cutters, router bits, gear cutters, and drill bits. The M2 high-speed tool steel is the most common in this category.
5. Shock Resisting Tool Steel or S Grade Steel
Developed to have high-level impact resistance, shock-resisting tool steels are remarkably strong. Furthermore, this tool steel&#;s strength is due to its high toughness value and low carbon content. This tool steel category contains alloying elements found in other categories, as well as 0.15-3% silicon.
Although this steel does not have optimal abrasion resistance, it has excellent resistance to shock regardless of temperature. Besides, these properties make S-grade tool steels ideal for producing jackhammer parts, blacksmith chisels, and clutch parts.
In addition, its other applications include hot stamps, pneumatic tools, chipper knives, cold and hot working chisels, hot forming dies, and cold gripper dies. The S7 tool steel is the most popular in this category.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Youngson.
6. Plastic Mold or Special Purpose Tool Steels
These are tool steels like an excellent mix of toughness, corrosion, hardness, and resistance to wear and tear. Furthermore, tool steel under this category also has high impact strength and is easy to polish.
Besides, plastic mold tool steels are ideal for companies that use the processes of extrusion and injection molding to produce plastic. Using this tool steel for making molds ensures tool durability and reliability.
Also, they are tool steels created for special purposes. Like the water-hardened tool steel, these ones are water-quenched. Tool steels in this category contain high-iron steels, while other alloying elements are either absent or present in minute quantities. Adding other alloying elements sparingly helps improve the mechanical properties of this tool steel while ensuring it is not as expensive as other tool steels.
An instance of special-purpose tool steels is the low-carbon mold steels used in thermoplastic molding. This specially crafted mold steel does not require high impact resistance but excellent wear resistance and heat tolerance. In common, the P20 is the most popular used tool steel in this category.
Tooling is a key component of any manufacturing project, both because they are a significant investment and a considerable influence on the overall quality of the manufacturing results. Tooling durability and longevity will depend on the application and the tool steel used to create the tooling. Below we take a dive into two different types of steel commonly used for tooling &#; tool steel and powder metal.
Choosing the right steel for your tooling will depend on several factors, including the conditions it will endure. Some questions must be answered to determine which will work for your application. Does it need a sharp edge? What type of heat treatment is required? Does it need to be abrasion resistant? Does it need to withstand impact? Will it be used at high speeds? Will it be used at high or low temperatures?
Tool Steel
Tool steel refers to carbon and alloy steel used to make a wide variety of tooling. The alloying elements give them the necessary properties required for various applications. In general, tool steels offer a fairly high material hardness, toughness that makes it resistant to breaking or chipping, wear resistance, abrasion and erosion resistance, and good thermal properties. It comes in different grades that have their own properties that are impacted by the percentage of each alloy.
A-grade is air-hardened tool steel that respond well to heat treatment. They have great wear resistance and toughness. D-grade is a cold working steel with higher carbon content than W-grade but offers wear resistance and toughness. O-grade is an oil-hardened, cold-working tool steel. This versatile general-purpose steel has great abrasion resistance and high toughness properties. S-grade is shock-resisting, low-carbon tool steel with high toughness. It is resistant to shock at low and high temperatures. W-grade is water hardening and contains low-cost high-carbon steel with high hardness and fragility. It isn&#;t suitable for high-temperature use.
A2 is an air-hardened chromium alloy steel. This multi-purpose steel offers good toughness, intermediate wear resistance, and excellent dimensional stability in heat treatment. Tooling applications include dies, punches, shear and slitter blades, knurling tools, and more.
A8 is an air-hardening tool steel that offers a combination of very good toughness, intermediate wear resistance, and excellent dimensional stability in heat treatment. A8 is often chosen for punches and dies that operate in the 55-60 Rockwell C hardness range.
Caldie is a chromium-molybdenum vanadium alloyed tool steel, which provides a combination of high toughness, good wear resistance, and dimensional stability on heat treatment. It is used in tooling that requires good chipping and cracking resistance and good wear resistance.
D2 is an air-hardening, high carbon, high chromium tool steel offering exceptionally high wear resistance properties. It provides an effective combination of wear resistance, toughness, and tool performance for a number of tooling applications, including rolls, punches, and dies for blanking, forming, trimming, and thread rolling.
D7 is an air-hardening, high carbon, high chromium tool steel with added carbon and vanadium for exceptional abrasion-resisting qualities. It was developed especially for applications involving extreme abrasive wear.
H13 is a 5% chromium, ultra-high strength air-hardened steel with higher content of molybdenum and vanadium. This combination provides a combination of excellent toughness and high wear resistance. It is often used in hot work tooling with applications such as inserts, cores, and cavities for dies, ejector pins, and nozzles.
M2 is a tungsten-molybdenum high-speed steel that offers good red hardness, toughness, and wear resistance. Tooling applications include drills taps, end mills, reamers, lathe and planer tools, broaches and boring tools, and more.
O1 is a general-purpose oil-hardened steel that offers good abrasion resistance and abundant toughness for a wide variety of tool and dies applications.
S7 is an oil or air-hardened, shock-resistant steel that offers very high impact toughness and high strength, along with medium wear resistance. Its applications include various dies, chisels, punches, rivet sets, and shear blades.
W1 is a water-hardened tool steel with a high carbon content that allows for a keen cutting edge. It offers moderate wear resistance. It is often used in various dies, drills, punches, taps, reamers, wood knives, embossing taps, and more.
Powder Metal Steels
Powder metals (PM) or PM high-speed steels are alternatives to conventional steels. Metal powders are the base materials for these steels. Through powered metallurgy, the powders are pressed into the desired shape and sintered (heated) to bond the material to produce the desired qualities, such as high-temperature strength, high-wear resistance, and toughness. Crucible particle metallurgy (CPM) is a powdered metallurgy process developed by Crucible Industries. Common PM steels used in tooling include:
CPM 1V tool steel is a high alloy, medium-carbon tool steel that exhibits high impact toughness, extreme heat resistance, and moderate wear resistance. It should be considered for blanking dies, cold and hot forging punches, gear rolling dies, shear blades, and sizing dies.
CPM 3V is an air-hardened tool steel that exhibits high impact strength and good wear resistance, providing maximum resistance to breakage and chipping. Blanking and sizing dies, shear blades, cold and hot forging punches, powder compaction tooling, and other tooling are made from it.
CPM 9V is an air-hardened tool steel that exhibits very high wear resistance, impact toughness, and heat resistance. Its durability is lower than other hot work tool steels. It is used in applications where resistance to thermal fatigue cracking is important, such as plastic injection feeder screws, non-return valves, shear blades, and forging dies. It has improved toughness compared to 10V.
CPM 10V is an air-hardened tool steel that exhibits high wear resistance and high impact toughness. Offer better wear resistance than high-carbon, high-chromium die steels.
CPM 15V is a cold work tool steel that provides unmatched wear resistance and provides longer tool life than 10V. It is also an alternative to sintered carbide in applications where solid carbide fractures or for intricate tool designs that are not possible with carbide.
CPM Rec M4, or PM M4, is a high-speed tool steel that provides a combination of high wear resistance with high impact toughness and bend strength. It is commonly used in form tooling, punches, broach inserts, taps, and header tooling.
Vanadis 4 Extra is a versatile tool steel manufactured by Uddeholm that offers a combination of ductility, wear resistance, and toughness. It is especially suitable for applications where adhesive wear and chipping are the primary failure mechanisms.
Get Expert Tooling With Pivot
At Pivot, we work with a variety of steel and other materials to deliver tooling you can count on. With shorter lead times and competitive pricing, we can provide the high-quality, high-precision tooling you need to get the job done. Contact us to discuss your tooling requirements.
The company is the world’s best High-Performance Alloy Tool Steel supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
Comments
Please Join Us to post.
0