For high hardness and abrasion resistance
Tool steel refers to a variety of high hardness carbon and alloy steels commonly used for the manufacture of tools.
Tool steels offer a high hardness, abrasion resistance and a resistance to deformation at high temperatures. Tool steels are used for knife manufacturing due to their ability to maintain an effective cutting edge.
Tool steels are usually heat treated. With a carbon content between 0.7% and 1.4%, tool steels are manufactured under carefully controlled conditions to produce the required quality. The manganese content is often kept low to minimize the possibility of cracking during water quenching. However, proper heat treating of these steels is important for adequate performance, and there are many suppliers who provide tooling blanks intended for oil quenching.
Tool steels are made to a number of grades for different applications. Choice of grade depends on, among other things, whether a keen cutting edge is necessary, as in stamping dies, or whether the tool has to withstand impact loading and service conditions encountered with such hand tools as axes, pickaxes, and quarrying implements.
In general, the edge temperature under expected use is an important determinant of both composition and required heat treatment. The higher carbon grades are typically used for such applications as stamping dies, metal cutting tools, etc. Tool steels are also used for special applications like injection moulding because the resistance to abrasion is an important criterion for a mould that will be used to produce hundreds of items.
Alloy steel is steel alloyed with other elements in amounts of between 1 and 50% by weight to improve its mechanical properties. Alloy steels are broken down into two groups: low alloy steels and high alloy steels. Low alloy steels are defined as having an alloy contents between 1 and 4% and high alloy steels have 4 to 50% alloying contents.
However, most commonly alloy steel refers to low alloy steel. These steels have greater strength, hardness, hot hardness, wear resistance, hardenability, or toughness compared to carbon steel. However, they may require heat treatment in order to achieve such properties. Common alloying elements are molybdenum, manganese, nickel, chromium, vanadium, silicon and boron.
As an extension to our stock of spring steel sheets we can supply a range of tool steels:
We do not supply Mill Certificates with orders, we only supply Certificates of Conformity.
