5 Key Factors to Consider When Choosing A Tool Steel Grade

Tool steel can be of various types depending on the type of use. These can be hot work steel, high speed steel, plastic mould steel, cold work steel, etc. This is a thriving and advanced industry that uses tools to cut through robust metals, withstand extreme heat and other work involving high-end technology. There are tool steel suppliers in India contributing to the industry’s expansion and progress. There are few factors to be considered while selecting the tool steel grade needed for your work.

1. Hot work tool steel – These kind of steels exhibit unparalleled robustness and are strong opponents of softening even under very high temperatures. These steels are impeccable for using in die casting, warm work forging and various other heavy industries. These have the capability of undergoing manufacturing procedures such as – shearing, forming, and metal punching at temperatures reaching approximately 760 degrees. Lately, tool steel suppliers in India are also using it for hot stamping moulds. For tasks like – extrusion of press tools, die inserts, mandrels, moulds needed for thermo plastic polymer injection that has high polishing ability, these are being overtly used.
2. High speed steel – This is the kind of steel that can cut through components at high speed. It is an alloy made of chromium, carbon, tungsten, vanadium, molybdenum and sometimes cobalt to provide extra high resistivity. Prime qualities of this include excellent robustness, resistance against easy wearing, incomparable compression strength. If you need something strong enough to act as metal saws, cold work tools, reamers, metal cutters, wood work tools, machining tools – high speed tool will easily and perfectly do the task.
3. Plastic mould steel – Also alternatively known as P-type steels, these are best used for zinc die casting or plastic injection moulding dies. It has excellent properties that make it fit for tool manufacturing, mechanical engineering, blow moulds, press brake dies, forming tools etc. P-type steels have outstanding wear resistance. Tool steel suppliers in India are huge fan of this technology for heavy industrial engineering works.
4. Cold work steel – The process involves metalworking where the metal is forced into a particular shape by keeping it much below recrystallization temperature. It works quite reverse to hot work tool steel. There are four major categories – bending, shearing, drawing and squeezing. This technique is much more preferred compared to hot work procedures. It often causes work hardening thereby rendering the metal more robust, stiffer and it loses plastic properties, if any. Few of the most common uses include – riveted joints, metal tubes, metal sheets and others.

Water hardening and shock resisting are also two significant tool steel grades which have become popular amongst tool steel suppliers in India. Pricing depends on the prices of raw materials like chromium, carbon and others. There can be wide gap in pricing because of the selection of alloys, type of manufacturing procedures applied and the type of grade used. Metal frameworks are needed in building sectors, aerospace industry, manufacturing bodies of various transport systems etc. Therefore, tool steel is high in demand in the market.

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