Hot Work Tool Steel: Grades, Properties, Hardness, Heat Treatment & Applications
Hot work tool steel is designed for one purpose – to resist heat that would ruin common steel. It is the material behind the dies, molds, punches and blades that are hammered and squeezed and repeatedly heated and cooled – in die casting, forging, extrusion, hot stamping and hot shearing. And what makes it different is easy to say and hard to engineer. It keeps its hardness, toughness, strength and dimensional stability, even when it’s hot. The most common grades you’ll come across are H13 (DIN 1.2344) , H11 (DIN 1.2343) and DB6 (DIN 1.2714) — which one you need depends on your operating temperature, impact load, die size and how long you want the tool to last. What Is Hot Work Tool Steel? It’s an alloy tool stee l for tools that get hot and cycle between hot and cold, again and again. It must be a combination of hot hardness, toughness, wear resistance, thermal-fatigue resistance and dimensional stability — all at the same time. The Three Grades You Should Know: H13 / DIN 1.234...
