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The four most common heat treatments are: annealing, normalizing, hardening, and tempering. Hardening and tempering are closely related and are often used in conjunction with each other. They are often used in conjunction and cannot be used without the other. Annealing Annealing is a heat treating process in which steel is heated to a specific temperature, […]

When choosing the right tool steel for your project, you may come across D2 tool steel and D3 tool steel. Both tool steels are high-carbon, high-chromium tool steels that are widely used in the tool and die industry for cold work tools such as cutting tools, dies, and punches. They are classified as D series

Tool steels are classified in different ways based on country standards. These include the United States, China, Europe, Germany, and Japan. They also have special names created for marketing. This variety makes it hard to identify a tool steel by its name. It is also difficult to compare steels from different standards and manufacturers. The

In the tool steel industry, ESR means Electroslag Remelting. To improve quality, some steel grades undergo remelting processes, such as vacuum arc remelting (VAR) and electro-slag remelting (ESR). As molds become bigger and require more specialized features, the use of remelted steel has been growing. Compared to VAR, ESR offers several advantages. It is cheaper because it doesn’t

H11 vs H13 steel: H11 tool steel and H13 tool steel are both hot-work tool steels. They belong to the H series of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) system. H11 and H13 are representative of hot work tool steels. They offer a good balance of cost and performance, making them a reference point for various

Our company, Aobo Steel, mainly supplies forged tool steel. This article will discuss the problems we faced while forging steel and how to avoid them. Generally, round bar steel that is 70mm or larger is forged. Bars smaller than 70mm are hot-rolled. Forging is used for plates with thicknesses of 30mm or more, and hot-rolling

D2 tool steel and A2 tool steel are both cold-work tool steels and are suitable for use in conditions below 200°C (390°F). If used in high-temperature conditions, they may undergo annealing or cracking due to thermal shock, resulting in material failure. In the AISI classification system, A2 belongs to the “air-hardening, medium-alloy” group (Group A),

Drawing dies stretch and deform metal sheets between a punch and a die to produce a cup-shaped workpiece. Their effectiveness depends on excellent wear resistance and anti-seizure properties. In many applications, choosing the right tool steel is critical. For example, steels like D2, D3, H13, H11, 1.2379, 1.2080, 1.2343, or 1.2344 can achieve optimal performance.

Understanding the Punching Process This material mainly manufactures punches and dies for blanking and punching metal or non-metal plates. The sheet deforms between the punch and the die at the initial punching stage. As deformation increases, the sheet’s lower surface cracks due to the resulting high tensile stress. Die and punch wear gradually around the

         At present, the common cold work die steel in the world can be divided into three categories: (1) low alloy cold work die steel; (2) medium alloy cold work die steel; (3) high alloy cold work die steel. In addition, several new cold work die steels have also been developed as