Imported Mold Steel Brand Cross-Reference to AISI Grades

How to read the tables

The first column is the AISI grade that the imported brand grade is equivalent to. Where the source also prints a JIS or a Chinese standard equivalent, both are given in the same cell, because a buyer who works to a Japanese or a Chinese drawing needs that half of the cross reference as much as the AISI number. The grade code is the mill’s own designation and it is the string that appears on the mill certificate, so it is the one to quote when the order is placed. Delivery hardness is the hardness the steel arrives at, normally in HBW, and HRC, HS or HV is shown where the mill specifies a different scale. Grade groups marked as having no AISI equivalent are special grades that do not sit on an AISI number.

The brands covered are ASSAB and its parent Uddeholm grades, BOHLER, DAIDO, HITACHI, THYSSEN and its GS series, SAARSTAHL, DORRENBERG, NKS, EDEL, SOREL, USINOR and INDUSTEEL, and SINTO.

Cold work mold steel brands

Cold work brands are grouped around the O series, the A2 grade and the D series. The D2 group is the longest because almost every mill builds a 12 percent chromium cold work steel against it, and D3 and D6 follow the same pattern with more and less carbon.

Source, 实用模具材料与热处理速查手册, Table 10-11, imported cold work mold steel grades and applications, printed pages 630 to 632.

Hot work mold steel brands

Hot work brands sit on the H10, H11 and H13 numbers, with H13 carrying by far the most mill equivalents because it is the standard die casting and extrusion grade. The H10A and H11 groups below are the lower chromium end of the family, and the group with no AISI equivalent is a molybdenum hot work grade that the mill lists outside the AISI numbers.

Source, 实用模具材料与热处理速查手册, Table 10-12, imported hot work mold steel grades and applications, printed pages 632 to 634.

Plastic mold steel brands

Plastic mold brands cover the P series and the 420 stainless molds. The P20 group is the pre-hardened workhorse and most of its equivalents are supplied pre-hardened in the 28 to 38 HRC range, which is why so many of the hardness values in that group carry an HRC figure instead of an HBW number. The 420 grades are the corrosion resistant molds, and 420 stainless steel and 440C stainless steel are the two numbers most often called out in that group.

Source, 实用模具材料与热处理速查手册, Table 10-13, imported plastic mold steel grades and applications, printed pages 634 to 640.

High speed steel brands

Only two high speed numbers are listed in the source for the imported brands, and both are the molybdenum grades that dominate cutting tool work. M2 is the general purpose grade and M42 is the cobalt grade for higher red hardness.

Source, 实用模具材料与热处理速查手册, Table 10-14, imported high speed steel grades and applications, printed pages 640.

Notes on the data

The source prints the Chinese standard equivalent of the 420 grades as 30Gr13. The standard designation of that grade is 30Cr13 and that is the form printed in the tables above. The source also prints the H13 group equivalent as 4Cr5MoSiV1 and the H11 equivalent as 4Cr5MoSiV, both of which are written here without the line break hyphens that the printed table carries.

A small number of grades are printed more than once in the source, either inside one table or in two tables. THYSSEN GS-083H appears twice in the 420 group with the same 290 to 340 HBW figure, the DAIDO NAK55 ESR entry appears twice in the P21 group with the same hardness, and THYSSEN GS-767 is listed in both the cold work and the plastic mold table because the mill markets it for both duties. Duplicate rows are shown once. No value was changed, and the brand codes are reproduced as printed, including the spacing used by the source.

Bare numbers in the hardness column are HBW, following the unit printed in the source column heading. Values carrying HRC, HS or HV are on that scale, and pre-hardened or annealed entries are the delivery condition the mill states where no single number is given.

Compiled from 实用模具材料与热处理速查手册, Tables 10-11 to 10-14, printed pages 630 to 640. Every grade, code and hardness figure was read from the searchable text layer of the file and the group boundaries were checked against the printed pages. The tables are a reference summary of published mill practice rather than an Aobo Steel specification, so confirm the grade and the supply condition with the mill certificate before an order is placed against a brand code.