Application of tool steel

If you still have problems, please let us know, by sending an email through our contact page or calling us at Thank you! We have compiled a list of common applications and uses of our Tool Steel and High Speed Steel products for your convenience. You may find the answer below, if not you can contact us we may be able to help. The way of pre-heat treatment is almost spheroidizing annealing to get uniform spheroidized structure.

After that, the wear-resistance of tools can be guaranteed. We are a professional special steel stockist and supplier with a high-quality stand for many years. As a professional tool steel supplier , please contacts us for any request. Songshun Steel always with you. Alloy Steel. Plastic Mold Steel. High Speed Steel.

Search for:. Tool Steel Tool steel is used to make cutting tools, measuring tools, dies and so much more. Tool Steel Suppliers We are a professional special steel stockist and supplier with a high-quality stand for many years. Powered by Join. Go to Top. M2 Regular C. Carbon tool steel is classified as the material for general application.

Alloy tool steel has a number of advantages over carbon tool steel as it has better hardenability, wear resistance, impact strength, toughness and does not tend to overheat.

Silicon containing tool steel shows significant decarburization during annealing and it is difficult to obtain required hardness of the steel. It finds an application in production of broaches, taps, reamers, dies, cutting punches, small tools of simple shape for processing non-metallic, non-ferrous and easily workable materials. They are used for production of broaches, taps, reamers, dies, cutting punches.

These steels are not so liable to decarburization. It has high abrasion resistance due to chromium and tungsten carbides, high hardenability due to manganese and fine grains due to tungsten. Using drawing to produce tool steel makes it possible to obtain great tolerances, smaller sizes and certain profiles. This helps to prevent the cracking of the material. This also increases the strength of the tool steel. This is a process that helps to reduce costs when producing tool steels. After casting, other treatments and processes are used to obtain better properties.

Some of the most common processes used after casting include annealing, hammer forging and rolling. It is important to highlight that most of the processes that have been used traditionally to produce tool steels have a common flaw — the cooling periods are quite long. This sometimes results in coarse structures that provide low quality and limited properties.

In order to eliminate this problem, many developments have been made. The most current processes, such as powder metallurgy and osprey processes, are capable to produce tool steels with high contents of carbon, chromium and improved properties. These include:. The only problem with these new processes is the increase of costs due to a need for special machinery and expertise.

However, we can expect a decrease in the prices as these processes become more common in the future. Tool steels are divided into 5 groups. Each of them has specific features regarding aspects like surface hardness, strength or toughness, working temperature, shock resistance and cost.

This group contains low-cost high carbon steels with high hardness. The price factor makes it the most widely used amongst tool steels. Also, they are not suitable for working at elevated temperatures. The name derives from the fact that all steels in this group are water quenched. Water quenching may result in cracks and warping more often than oil quenching or air hardening. This is also why the sales, although still leading, have been decreasing compared to other grades.

A-grade tool steels have a higher content of chromium which results in a better response to heat treatment. The machinability of A-grade tool steels is quite good. In addition, they have great wear resistance and toughness properties. In this group we find the tool steels that combine W-grade and A-grade characteristics. On one hand, they contain a higher amount of carbon compared to the water hardening type.

On the other hand, they have the properties described above which are typical of the air hardening type. Because of their high chromium content, D series tool steels are often also categorised as stainless. But the corrosion protection is actually pretty limited. This tool steels group has great resistance to abrasion and high toughness properties.