Cold Work Steel

Cold work tool steels are normally used at room temperatures featuring good wear resistance, toughness and dimensional stability. Since they operate at room temperatures high temperature resistance is not required. We normally classify cold work steels into 3 categories:

• High Carbon High chromium steels,
• Oil hardening steels,
• Air hardening steels.

The most important properties looked into Cold work tool steel dies are:

• Wear resistance of die.
• Resistance to Chipping off,
• Resistance to cracking

To achieve wear resistance higher hardness is recommended. For better impact strength steels with better toughness are suggested. Toughness normally depends on the Hardness level and the Microstructure of the steel like Carbide distribution, grain size, inclusion ratings etc.