MATERIALS FOR FORMING TOOLS
MATERIALS FOR FORMING TOOLS
➢ Tool steels are the most suitable materials for forming
tools or press tools (dies, punches etc.)
➢ Tool steels are special alloy steels which are used as
high quality materials for making tools for forming and
cutting operations and for building presses.
➢ The metallurgical characteristics of tool steels can be
correlated with the required properties of the tool
during forming operations.
➢ Requirements depend on the operation – cutting,
shearing, cold working, hot working, sheet forming.
Tool Steels
SELECTION OF TOOL STEELS
Comparative properties
• Toughness
• Wear resistance
• Red hardness
• Machinability
• Non deforming properties
• Resistance to decarburization
• Depth of hardening
TOUGHNESS
• Ability to resist breaking/ability to absorb energy
during deformation.
• Useful as shock resisting tools.
• Low and medium carbon steels have better
toughness than high carbon tool steels.
• Shallow hardening tool steels (with a soft core)
have higher toughness.
WEAR RESISTANCE
• Resistance to abrasion or loss of dimensional
tolerances.
• Depends upon size and distribution of carbide
particles.
• Some tool steels have outstanding wear
resistance.
RED HARDNESS
• Resistance to softening at high temperature.
• Alloying elements which form hard and stable
carbide particles generally improve red
hardness: W, Cr, Mo in high contents.
MACHINABILITY
• Ability of the material to be cut freely and
produce a good finish.
• Factors: Hardness, microstructure, quantity of
hard excess carbides.
• Decreases with increase in C and alloy content.
• Presence of strong carbide forming elements: V,
Cr, Mo decreases machinability.
• Small amount of sulphur improves machinability.
NON-DEFORMING PROPERTIES
• Steels expand and contract during heating and quenching
causing change in dimensions (distortion).
• For complex and precision tools, it is desirable to have
minimum dimensional change.
• Intricately designed tools must maintain their shape after
hardening.
• Steels good in non deforming properties can be machined to
very close tolerances so that little grinding is required after
hardening.
• In general, distortion decreases with decreasing cooling rate.
• Air hardening – least distortion; Oil – moderate; water
hardened – maximum distortion.
• It is associated with temperature gradient in the material.
Resistance to decarburization
• It influences the type of heat treatment
equipment and amount of material to be
removed after hardening.
• It occurs in steels above 900-1000 deg C.
• Protective atmosphere is required.
• It will result in softer surface. To be removed by
grinding, may not be possible for intricate
shapes.
• Alloying improves resistance.
DEPTH OF HARDENING
• Depth to which materials gets hardened during
quenching.
• Measured by hardenability.
• Increases with increasing alloy content.
• Only cobalt decreases hardenability of steels.
• Graded as shallow, medium and deep.
• To develop strength through out a large section,
it is important to select high alloy tool steel.
• Jomny quench test is used.
Tool Steels
Shock resisting tool steels
• When toughness and ability to withstand
repeated shock are important.
• Low to medium carbon content
(0.4 to 0.65%)
Alloying elements are
• Si (strength improves, decarburization
improves)
• Cr (hardenability increases,
WR increases)
• Mo (hardenability increases)
• W (red hardness increases)
• Oil hardening, some are water hardening.
Used for forming tools subjected to shock
loads, chisels, drop hammers etc.
Cold work tool steels
• Most important class of tool steels and used in
many applications such as dies and punches
for cold working, sheet metal cutting and
forming.
Divided into four categories
• Water hardening (W)
• Oil hardening (O)
• Medium alloy air hardening (A)
• High carbon high chromium (D) also known as
Die Steel (D2, D3)
• D2 steel : 1.5%C, 12% Cr, 1% Mo, 1% V, 1%
Co, 0.6% Mn, 0.6% Si.
Hot work tool steels
• Developed for tools used in hot
working operations such as hot
forging, hot extrusion etc.
• Divided into three sub-groups (Cr-
base, W-base, Mo-base)
• H11, H13 (Cr-base) are very popular.
• H11: 0.4%C, 5% Cr, 1.5% Mo, 0.5%
V, 0.3%Ni, 1.2% Si.
• W and Mo base tool steels have
higher red hardness when compared
to Cr type but have lower toughness.
More brittle.
